19th century BLING | Goldfields jewellery by cashbrown

19th century goldfields jewellery

Employees of the Government Printing Office, Sydney, 1881. Courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

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16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016 CURATOR | CASH BROWN WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY Katrina Banyai Dr Dorothy Erickson Amber Evangelista 19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Trevor Hancock Dr Linda Young

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This book is published in conjunction with the exhibition 19th Century Bling | Goldfields Jewellery, held at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka, Ballarat 16 April – 4 July 2016.

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SPONSORS

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The exhibition was organised by Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka, Ballarat. Produced by Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka Designed by Creative Park Printed by Playbill Published by Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka, 102 Stawell St South, Ballarat 3050

CATALOGUE SPONSOR

CONTENTS PARTNERS

This work is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.

ISBN-978-0-9945535-0-8

FOREWORD Jane Smith | Director

INTRODUCTION FROM THE TRADITIONAL OWNERS OF THIS LAND I Uncle Bryon Powell | Wadawurrung Elder 9

SUPPORTERS

INTRODUCTION FROM THE TRADITIONAL OWNERS OF THIS LAND II Aunty Marlene Gilson | Wadawurrung Elder 11

MOURNING AND MEMORY: PHOTOGRAPHIC BROOCHES AND LOCKETS Cash Brown 83 DECLINE OF MOURNING AND LEADING CHANGE Cash Brown

SOUVENIRS OF GLOBAL GOLD SEEKING: GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY OF THE 19TH CENTURY Part 2: The golden pick and shovel in jewellery

INTRODUCTION Cash Brown | Curator

Trevor Hancock

Cordell Kent

SOUVENIRS OF GLOBAL GOLD SEEKING: GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY OF THE 19TH CENTURY

The Street Family

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

LENDERS

Katrina Banyai

PAGE 2 Demi parure with emeralds and Etruscan-style tassels

Trevor Hancock Trevor Kennedy

DATE c. 1880

Jane Smith

MAKER Lamborn & Wagner | Melbourne

Dr Linda Young

Private Collection

Plus many anonymous private collectors to whom we are extremely grateful.

ABOVE An unusual brooch with double picks, nuggets, shovel, bucket and rope

Charters Towers Archives

UNCOVERING THE JEWELLERS OF THE NORTH QUEENSLAND COLONIAL GOLDFIELDS Katrina Banyai

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19TH CENTURY AUSTRALIAN GOLDRUSH JEWELLERY Dr Dorothy Erickson

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Part 1: Gold digger jewellery in colonial Australia

Dr Linda Young PRIVATE LENDERS

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DATE c. 1900 MAKER unknown | Australia or South Africa Private Collection

THE ʻLITTLE AUSSIE BATTLERS’ IN AUSTRALIAN ART Trevor Hancock

LOLA MONTEZ: MORE THAN A MISTRESS Amber Evangelista 52 SOUTH AUSTRALIAN FIELDS AND FINDS Cash Brown TOUCHED BY GOLD: ‘BOUNTY LASS’ PHOEBE MORGAN AND HER LEGACY Dr Dorothy Erickson

SOUVENIRS OF GLOBAL GOLD SEEKING: GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY OF THE 19TH CENTURY Part 3: The global journey of the pick and shovel brooch

Dr Linda Young 60

142

CONTRIBUTOR BIOGRAPHIES 156 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 157

LIST OF EXHIBITION JEWELLERY 158

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

Anne Schofield AM

Dr Linda Young

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FOREWORD

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Jane Smith | Director at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka (M.A.D.E)

The idea for this special exhibition came as I was standing in the State Library of Victoria being shown some objects from the Victorian gold rush period. There were two unusual, but exquisite, brooches. They were the first pieces of rare colonial goldfields jewellery I had ever seen.

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

I heard that the owner of the Gold Shop in Ballarat was very knowledgeable about Australian gold and colonial jewellery. I called the owner, Cordell Kent, who generously lent me a number of his rare books on the subject and, more importantly, introduced me to Trevor Hancock, who has been enormously helpful, and provided many valuable leads to develop this exhibition. Looking through Cordell’s books, I saw many plates of gorgeous pieces of Australian jewellery. It opened a world of design, innovation and fashion from the second half of the 19th century that I suspected not many people knew about. I am always looking for new ways of bringing goldfields history alive, telling the forgotten histories and making links to audiences today. Trevor’s contacts and growing excitement about the exhibition have enabled M.A.D.E to curate a magnificent show with pieces largely from private collections.

OPPOSITE Gold brooch with kangaroo and emu DATE c. 1858 MAKER Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. (attributed to) | Sydney LENT BY Trevor Kennedy PHOTO John McRae

Almost as soon as the gold rushes began in Australia in 1851, jewellery was designed and made specifically for the working and middle-class people who mined the precious metal. Strong motifs were developed about life in colonial Australia and many pieces made often rivalled the craftsmanship of the best gold and silver smiths in Europe. Melbourne rapidly became one of the

wealthiest cities in the world, and was therefore a leader in luxury and fashion. I was explaining the exhibition concept to our new curator Cash Brown (to whom I owe an enormous debt of gratitude in making this exhibition happen) and we established that the digger jewels were like “rapper bling of the day”. So the title Bling was born. The Ian Potter Foundation and Federation University Australia provided the seed funding for this important exhibition, which is the first mini blockbuster developed in-house by M.A.D.E, and this catalogue was made possible with funding from The Gordon Darling Foundation. Gold rush history in central Victoria has largely ignored the experience for the local Aboriginal people. Consequently, I have started this catalogue with comments from two traditional elders of the Wadawurrung tribe, Uncle Bryon Powell and Aunty Marlene Gilson, to reflect on the impact the quest for wealth by the influx of foreigners had on the Aboriginal population. Lola Montez is a central figure of this exhibition. She was a remarkable woman of the 19th century who broke conventions and had radical political views. She was also a burlesque star and her Spider Dance became internationally famous. Apparently the value of the gold nuggets thrown in appreciation during Lola’s shows in Ballarat would be worth over a million dollars today. Lola encapsulates the overturning of the ancien regime that occurred during the gold rushes in Australia and overseas during the 19th century. This is the first major exhibition curated by M.A.D.E. It appropriately draws on symbols of power and themes of innovation, social upheaval and political reform in a fascinating part of history which has been largely unknown – until now. 

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

This magnificent exhibition and catalogue is a unique opportunity to see some of Australia’s most rare and valuable pieces of early colonial jewellery and to explore the social impact of the gold rush phenomena.

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Introduction from the tr aditional owners of this land I

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Uncle Bryon Powell | WADAWURRUNG ELDER

From colonisation, the effects of that reduced our population, our family, down to two. From the time of colonisation through to the late 1800s, our numbers reduced from 3,000 to 4,000 down to two. One of those people did not have any children. We are the descendants of the last living person. It’s about 400 of us now, so we’re doing okay.

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

We have an aunty, one of our senior elders who spoke to her mum, who spoke to her father, who’s the last person who had a child who lived tribally, and he told her certain things. She told her daughter, who’s now one of our senior elders in her mid-80s. We’re going back three generations back into the 1800s and she’s telling us what he said. We have that passed down. We still have those stories, not as many as we would like but we’ve got them.

OPPOSITE Australian cast silver Aboriginal figures on opal-bearing rock. This type of opal is called Boulder Opal, and the iron-rich stone is called ironstone. The cast figures have tarnished over time. DATE mid – late 19C MAKER unknown | probably Queensland LENT BY Trevor Kennedy PHOTO John McRae

Life for the last tribal ancestor would have been horrendous, because he’s gone from, as a boy, a tribal life within this landscape that hadn’t seen white man to all the changes made through colonisation. The changes in his lifetime were horrific, to have your whole world ripped up and thrown away and a whole new world introduced. Not just a hierarchy of people and society, but also the changes in the landscape, how the landscape was modified. Different animals and plants were introduced at a point to where what was your old traditional places to go to harvest your food, to harvest your resources, the things that were important for your history, the song lines, the story lines, to have them

all disappear and then to be told that you can’t speak about them. You can’t even use the language. You can’t tell the stories and you can’t dance, you can’t sing the songs. That’s how a lot of the information was passed down, it was told in the dances, in the songs. To have all that cut away and to be punished for doing it, that would have been horrid. The story that needs to be told is the truth. We weren’t just on the periphery. We helped feed the miners. We clothed them, kept them warm, worked with them, worked for them, we worked for ourselves. I believe that without Wadawurrung people, the Ballarat Gold Fields would not have been found, would not have been established. It wasn’t an accident. We actually led miners to where the gold was. From there, they took over. When the miners were starving, we fed them. The miners were freezing because the clothes they were wearing were inappropriate for this climate, they wore woollen clothes, which once wet, doesn’t dry out and actually freezes to your body. We were busy catching possums to make possum-skin cloaks. Being good capitalists, we sold them. A lot of the miners survived because of our skills with hunting to bring back kangaroos, emus, goannas and wombats for them to eat. They were too busy digging gold to go out looking for food. The contribution that Wadawurrung people made to the Gold Fields was enormous. It’s a story that hasn’t been told. To give you an example, the delivery of gold to the banks from the gold mine houses, it was Aboriginal people that were hired as the guards for that, the escorts, because we had no value for gold. They couldn’t trust white fellas as they’d pinch it and run.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

Now, as a people, we had a lot of effects of civilisation forced upon us. When I say civilisation, we’ll call it colonisation because we were already civilised. We have a very sophisticated social structure.

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

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Wadawurrung people weren’t worried about that. The gold had really no value. It couldn’t be used as a tool. It was too soft to be used in a lot of ways. It required too much work to mould it into something decorative. We didn’t need decoration. You couldn’t find it everywhere so it had no value.

and cart. We can be equal.” The stories I’ve heard and read about life on the Gold Fields, whenever we got a chance to get gold and sell it. It was always, go and buy the clothes, go and buy the horse and cart and parade and say “We’re just the same as you. We’re just as good as you.”

Once Aboriginal people realised the value gold had for the white people, they worked with that. We weren’t silly. We could see what it meant. We weren’t chasing the gold but it was, “Okay, if we do this, if we work with this guy, dig this up, it’s going to get us some money. What it’s going to mean is we can buy the flash clothes, we can buy a horse

Money does that. It gives you the opportunity because the people that we worked with didn’t see us as primitive natives but as people that would work and work diligently, knew what we were after and appreciated that, valued that. Those are the stories that haven’t been told. 

Introduction from the tr aditional ownerS of this land II

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Aunty Marlene Gilson | WADAWURRUNG ELDER King Billy was the head of the clan and Queen Mary was his wife. He was my great great great grandfather.

If we don’t research them and preserve our stories, they are going to be gone and we won’t know anything.

I think Queen Mary and King Billy deserve to have their story told because he was the rightful owner of all this land. This was his country, this was his land and how proud he would have been of his land and how they used to look after it. It was all about caring for the land and the food source and the land was like their supermarket.

Through King Billy and Queen Mary’s eyes it would have been a forest that was disappearing, the animals and food source disappearing. Ballarat was becoming a city and all the trees and all the forests and all their food source were gone. 

I researched their experience of the gold rush and I tried to find out the truth but there were a lot of bad things happening on the gold fields like the rapes and everything. It wasn’t all lovely but I think they just tried their best to fit in and they begged a lot and went around trying to get food just to survive. That was why they performed the corroborees and sold the possum skin rugs to survive. Then a lot of the miners also went into the land but they didn’t strike gold. The miners had to feed their families and they also went into the bush and lived with the Aboriginals and got possums for their family to eat. My ancestors worked both ways but they helped the gold miners out and the miners had to adopt some of the Aboriginal ways as well.

OPPOSITE Aunty Marlene Gilson Marn Grook – Football, Ballarat and Geelong 2015 Acrylic on Linen 80 x 100 cm Private Collection

The history books say that we were all deceased and there were no Wadawurrung survivors. The history books are now being changed because if they had done a little bit of research, they would have found that there were descendants and then people had families.

Aunty Marlene Gilson is a history painter, whose paintings combine stories from the Dreamtime, recorded Australian colonial history and stories passed down through her family in colourful tableaus. Her work encourages reflection upon the impact of colonial settlement on the original inhabitants of the Ballarat region and importantly highlights the contributions made by Aboriginal people to immigrants and in shaping history.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

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INTRODUCTION

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Cash Brown | CURATOR 19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

This exhibition takes its title from the slang term for ostentatious and expensive jewellery and clothes, and as a description for the materialistic attitudes of those who sport them.1 The term “bling” and lifestyle incorporating deliberate showiness, shiny metals and large gems originated in the 1990s when it was popularised through hip hop culture. It may be tempting to think the phenomenon of new wealth and the development of “in your face” conspicuous consumption, spawning over the top new styles of jewellery which challenge societal norms, is recent. But it is not. As early as the 1650s in Europe, a renaissance of materialism arose, after a lull during the Dark Ages, where ordinary people were able to afford treasures usually reserved for royalty and the cultural elite.

OPPOSITE The Victorian installation at the International Exhibition in London, 1862 showing the pyramid of gold representing the total yield from Victorian fields in the preceding year. IMAGE courtesy State Library of Victoria

Conspicuous consumption, coined by a witty impresario, Norwegian-American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen in his book The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), referred to those who bought expensive objects to display wealth and demonstrate superiority rather than to cover real needs.

Consumerism was a feature of the Victorian era, which happened to coincide with the goldrush era in Australia after 1851.2 The discovery of gold and the subsequent rushes saw the spectacular development of ostentatious jewellery, which showed new-found wealth and innovative, original designs which celebrated colonial Australian identity and exotic resources. Rare brooches, earrings, necklaces, pendants, racing cups, rings, bracelets, coins and even mayoral chains all made from Australian gold, have been gathered for this temporary exhibition, largely from private lenders. These are supplemented by original designs, working tools and significant pieces borrowed from prestigious national public collections. Appropriately located in one of Australia’s most famous goldmining sites, the Eureka lead in Ballarat, 19th Century Bling | Goldfields jewellery draws upon the rich cultural history of the goldfields and beyond, recalling conflicts, triumphs and recognising legacies. This publication is conceived as a companion guide to the jewels in the exhibition to make them shine beyond their intrinsic beauty. Goldfields jewellery is the tip of a very large historical iceberg. By presenting vignettes from the past, little windows are opened. These stories and the information in this publication are compiled contributions from a diverse range of disciplines. The result is a rich variety of material which may challenge our assumptions about ‘the larger narratives that of national progress or regress that have become inextricably associated with Australian gold’.3 It may also invite criticism, challenges to and contemplation about the research and attributions presented.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

The Australian gold rushes of the second half of the 19th century produced rapid change in the physical, economic, social and cultural landscape of Australia. This period, interchangeably called High Colonial, Colonial and Victorian eras, is peppered with significant events, inventions, characters and innovations which have shaped Australia. Exploring decorative and wearable material culture from the second half of the 19th century provides a fascinating way to present stories from the past and shed light on little-known aspects of Australian history, and parallels with gold rushes in North America and southern Africa.

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Defining Goldfields jewellery

Gold signet ring

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

DATE c. 1855 The design has been cast then hand engraved with the incorrect spelling of Ballarat, crossed pick and shovel and cradle. A similar cast ring made by Leopold Wagner and Samuel Woollett, Ballarat.5 The spelling of Ballarat was a source of constant confusion. It originated from two Aboriginal words “balla arat”, meaning “resting place”. The municipality used the spelling Ballaarat as part of its corporate description, but the town itself came to be known as Ballarat in 1994. The spelling on this ring is most unusual. LENT BY Sovereign Hill Museums Association | Gold Museum | Ballarat

For the purposes of this exhibition, the term ‘goldfields jewellery’ can be applied to four main groups. The first two evolved roughly in parallel; diggers or miners jewellery and Australiana. A third group is also presented, made from Australian gold and often incorporating Australian gemstones, semiprecious stones, quartz, shell, amethyst, citrine, operculum and even quandongs and shark’s teeth. Other pieces presented are Australian made, with Australian gold, but utilise European motifs and incorporate Continental fashions of the day with unparalleled exuberance, before gradually becoming more understated and simple as taste and fashions changed in line with the Aesthetic style of design. The fourth group is the resurgence of the mining tool motifs in jewellery as a result of the gold rushes in the late 19th century in Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland, North America and what is now South Africa.

Golden tools The early miners jewellery is mainly brooches and a few rare dress rings. These pieces were often commissioned by gold miners, using their new-found gold and local jewellers who in the very early days may have been ex-convicts, skilled in smithing and forging. The explosion of wealth caused by the gold rushes attracted many European jewellers and goldsmiths who settled in Australia. Their stylistic bespoke innovations were supplemented by readymade examples also made for retail sale. Featuring the tools of

the miner’s trade and spoils of toil (nuggets), these brooches and rings include symbols of pick axes, shovels, revolvers, sluice boxes, pans, buckets, windlasses, cradles, the miner himself, bags of gold and nuggets, in heraldic and tableau style arrangements. Many are surrounded by leaves of acanthus, banksias, native pear, vines or simple bare sticks. Very few of these pieces are known to exist.

sophisticated and evolved colony. This is at odds with the devastation caused to the population of Australia’s original inhabitants, which is ironic given Aboriginal figures are present in some pieces. The degradation of the landscape, poverty and social discord were clearly not subjects for celebration and presentation in gold. It must be remembered that not all glittered for many.

Trevor Hancock presents what he believes is Australia’s earliest native gold ring, and Dr Linda Young provides an entry into the topic of the pick and shovel motifs. Hancock then details compelling similarities between the earliest known of the surviving examples of the mining brooch genre before delving into the development and importance of Australiana themes in jewellery.

New-found wealth outside the mining fraternity, the abundance of gold and a fascination with the natural world led to exuberant jewellery manufactured by the many skilled craftsmen who migrated to Australia sometimes to hunt for gold, but mostly to benefit from providing services to a rapidly developing economy. Australian stones, shells, gemstones and even teeth were incorporated into lavish designs. Australian gold was also employed to exemplify continental fashions of the day, which as the ladies of the Sydney Government Printing Office in 1888 can tell us was lockets in that decade (refer to the image on the inside front cover).

Australiana An increased level of sophistication in design rapidly evolved as jewellers from all over Europe brought with them great expertise and influences from continental fashion. The largest brooches come from the 1850s to 1860s when alluvial gold was comparatively easily found. A rapidly growing middle class created a demand for luxury goods, and this is where the second group of Goldfields jewellery and decorative arts evolved with its origins in Sydney in the mid 1850s.

Early mining jewellery, regarded as sentimental mementoes of hardship and success, were treasured souvenirs of the goldfields which successful miners presented to family and friends. As John Wade explains, ‘Men wanted their women to show they were wealthy, and where their wealth came from’.6 Diggers brooches and rings were also purchased by visitors to the goldfields as ‘proof of colonial advancement’ to the east coast goldfields back in Europe.7

Championed by the Sydney-based jewellery duo Danish born sculptor Julius Hogarth and his partner Conrad Erichsen, Australian bush motifs were incorporated into lavishly designed brooches, bracelets, lockets, ear pendants and rings. Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. won a bronze medal at the 1854 Sydney colonial exhibition for one of their Australiana brooches. Crafted between 1854 and 1861, the known jewels are all are of a similar, much imitated, style featuring Australian fauna and species which can be found around Sydney/Blue Mountains environs and include; tree ferns, banksias, bull rushes, eucalypts, grass trees, kangaroos and emus.8

Miner’s pride, manifested in gold, flew in the face of Victorian taste, yet embraced the already fashionable trend for conspicuous consumption. This jewellery can be regarded as the bling of its day as an ostentatious display of new-found wealth, exemplified by the brooches presented to goldfields legend Lola Montez. As Amber Evangelista explains in her contribution, Lola was way more than a burlesque dancer and mistress. The extraordinary tale of a life more ordinary is also that of Phoebe Morgan, the great great grandmother of Dr Dorothy Erickson. Dorothy is a Western Australian jeweller, author and jewellery expert who has dedicated her life to the study of goldfields jewellery. Phoebe’s tale, importantly told by a direct descendant, provides a sharp contrast to Lola’s life. However both of these pioneering women endured hardships unimaginable today and have left legacies of positive influence upon society.

Brooch with emu and kangaroo beneath palm tree DATE c. 1860 MAKER unknown | Australia COLLECTION LENT BY Trevor Kennedy

Victorians had a fascination with exotic flora and fauna, especially the giant macropods (large-footed marsupials) and rattites (large flightless birds) which became our national emblem. These pieces were often sent back to Europe and the Britain as souvenirs from the Antipodes and evidence of a

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The relationship between South Australia and the Victorian goldfields is discussed, as South Australia was not known for producing much gold. It did produce remarkable jewels, but at a cost. Massive presentation brooches from the goldfields, like the one given to Lola Montez in 1856, gave way to simpler bar brooches later in the century. New strikes in Western Australia from 1886 witnessed a resurgence of pick axes, shovels, nuggets and buckets in brooches. The West Australian brooches often had the name of the mine or goldfield included. This fourth group of jewellery is discussed by Dr Linda Young in part two of her illuminating essay on goldfields souvenirs, and by Dr Dorothy Erickson, who provides an overview of Australian gold jewellery making and explains the innovations made in West Australian design. New research on jewellery manufacture in the Queensland goldfields is explained by Katrina Banyai and fills an important gap in our knowledge with her recent research, reminding us of the remarkable social climate of the Queensland colony.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

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The spread of mining jewellery designs migrating to South Africa, Alaska, the Klondike and California in the last part of the 19th century is discussed by Dr Linda Young, who sheds new light on the topic with original independent research.

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Presentation pieces from jewellery to mounted emu eggs, inkstands, and sporting trophies derived from the ancient custom of presenting silver and gold objects to individuals on special full stop. These extravagant pieces were highly regarded in this era and form an integral part of the story of 19th century silver and gold.9 Presented with great Victorian pomp and ceremony to notable entertainers, departing and retiring officials and their wives and daughters, members of the Royal family and clergy, they often included Australiana motifs. For this reason, we have included fine examples of racing cups, mayoral chains and jewellery presented to important characters in the exhibition.

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

The other great themes of the Victorian era, sentimentality and mortality, are discussed, with a dedicated section on mourning and memory. Far from morbid, these lockets and brooches have lives of their own and the photographic portraits they contain spark a certain wonder. While we do not have a giant golden pillar, like the Victorian Gold Pyramid displayed at the London International Exhibition in 1862, which represented the amount of gold hauled from the earth in Victoria the preceding year, this exhibition is significant as it focuses attention on the shiny world of Australian jewellery underpinned by the social influences on design. Eva Czernis-Ryl from the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney terms the period the ‘golden epoch’ and rightfully claims these decorative art gems are time capsules, which can tell us a lot about the people who made and wore this remarkable jewellery.10

OPPOITE Portrait of a Lady, tinplate photograph hand tinted in gold DATE 1860–70 IMAGE courtesy Gold Museum | Ballarat

I have seen the glint in collectors’ eyes after a successful hunt, bringing home trophies after meticulous research, and it is hoped that 19th Century Bling will illuminate yours, even if it is at the risk of developing Stendahl’s syndrome – rapid heartbeats, dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations caused by exposure to overwhelming beauty. 

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Urban Dictionary, < http://www.urbandictionary. com/define.php?term=bling>, viewed 18.1.2016.

2 Richards, T 1990, The commodity culture of Victorian England: Advertising and spectacle 1851–1914, Stanford University Press, Stanford. 3 McAlman, I, Cook, A, Reeves, A 2001, ‘Introduction’, Gold: Forgotten Histories and Lost Objects of Australia, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, p. 10. 4 Hancock, T 2016, ‘The “Little Aussie Battlers” in Australian Art’, Brown, C (ed), 19th Century Bling | Goldfields jewellery, Goldfields Jewellery, Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka, Ballarat. 5 Illustrated in: Cavill K, Cocks, G and Grace, J 1992, Australian Jewellers, Gold & Silversmiths–Makers & Marks, CGC Gold, Roseville, Plate 29. 6 Wade, J 2000, ‘Australian Jewellery’, Gold and Civilisation, Art Exhibitions Australia Limited, Sydney, p. 95. 7 McPherson, A 1860, My experiences in Australia, being recollections of a visit to the Australian Colonies in 1856–57, Hope, London, p. 324. 8 Hancock, T 2016 A rare ‘bush’ brooch attributed to Hogarth, Erichsen & Co., unpub, n.p. 9 Czernis-Ryl, E 1995, Australian Gold and Silver 1851–1900, Powerhouse Publishing, Haymarket, p. 14. 10 Czernis-Ryl, E 1995, Australian Gold and Silver 1851–1900, Powerhouse Publishing, Haymarket, p. 33.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

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Research by Emeritus Professor Peter Boyce, of the University of Tasmania, shows fairly conclusively that the WT initials on the ring belong to the Reverend William Tancred.6

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I am of the view that this is the earliest surviving piece of Tasmanian colonial jewellery crafted from Tasmanian gold. It is therefore likely to be one of the earliest pieces of native Australian gold gentleman’s jewellery and could be Australia’s earliest surviving piece of jewellery crafted from native gold. Dr Dorothy Erickson writes

ABOVE & OPPOSITE DATE 1852–55 MAKER Charles Jones | Hobart

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

LENT BY Trevor Hancock

Austr alian colonial gentleman’s dress ring Jewellery was not on the list of requirements for survival in the new colony, as few could afford the luxury. The first recorded pieces of colonial Australian jewellery were made around 1803 for Governor King’s wife and daughter by the French jeweller Ferdinand Meurant. Meurant was pardoned in 1803 after he and John Austin, a copperplate engraver from Dublin were convicted of forgery and sent to Sydney in 1800. Meurant and other jewellers, mainly of convict origin, used their skills to repair spectacles, watches, clocks and jewellery brought to the colonies.1 They crafted new works using gold melted down from existing jewellery and coins. Some of the earliest pieces include a fob seal and desk seal from c. 1840.2 Very few pieces of Australian made gold jewellery survive from the formative years 1788–1851, after which gold rushes began occurring in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania.3

It appears even fewer of the surviving pieces were made for men. The earliest previously recorded piece of men's Australian gold jewellery is the signet ring on page 21, made by Wagner and Woollett of Ballarat in 1854. The ring illustrated here bears the marks for Charles Jones – ‘CJ’ in an impressed rectangular cartouche, the mark for Charles Jones, a convict silversmith who arrived in Tasmania in 1833. This mark is accompanied by a lion passant, queen’s head and anchor also in cartouches in imitation of hall marks for the Assay Office in Birmingham which was Jones’ home town. Given Jones’ movements and timing in Hobart and Sydney, one might deduce that this ring was crafted in Hobart from Tasmanian gold between 1852 and 1855.4 Without material testing however it can only be assumed to be Tasmanian alluvial gold.

Although gold had been discovered by a convict in 1840 at Nine Mile Springs in Northern Tasmania, and then in the Beaconsfield area, this ring was found in the Midlands district and was more likely to be from the Tullochgorum area, where the first payable alluvial gold find was registered by James Grant in 1852. The Nook, Mangana and Tower Hill Creek were all sites in the Fingal district by 1852.

Initially it was believed that the initials on the ring read TW, but further consideration has revealed that the initials WT were reversed to show in the correct order when impressed into hot wax used to seal letters.

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William Tancred (1818–64) was the third and youngest son of Sir Thomas Tancred, 5th or 6th Baronet of Nantes in France. He matriculated from Christchurch in 1837 and in 1841 obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Oxford University. His master’s degree from Oxford University was conferred in 1845.7 After arriving in Tasmania in mid 1846 as a missionary chaplain it is thought he was initially appointed an associate priest at St David’s Cathedral in Hobart, then in December 1846 as minister to the district of Macquarie Plains to the west of Hobart. Two acres of land were donated to the church and within 18 months Tancred had supervised the construction of the church at Gretna in Victorian Academic Gothic style. St Mary the Virgin was consecrated on 1 June 1848. This became known as the Woolpack Church after a nearby hostelry. It is thought to have been designed by Tancred,8 who was reputedly Archdeacon of Launceston at some later stage and as he was on the nearby Longford electoral roll for Tasmania in 1856, this may be true. He returned to returned to Britain where he was vicar of Kilmersdon, Bath and died at a young age on May 24, 1864. The ring was unearthed near Perth in Northern Tasmania, near Longford. TREVOR HANCOCK

It is highly probable that the gold and nuggets for the ring were from this rush. Grant later opened the first reef gold mine in Tasmania in 1856, attracting over 500 miners.5

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Czernis-Ryl, E 2014, Brilliant: Australian Gold and Silver 1851 - 1950, Powerhouse Publishing, Sydney, p. 10.

2 Ill. Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian Jewellery, 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain pp. 22 and 24. 3 Tasmania’s early nineteenth century gold/ silversmiths history is covered in Hawkins, J, 1973, Australian Silver, 1800–1900, chapter 11. 4 Driscoll, 1992, ‘Freedom Silver and Mr Jones’, The Australian Antique Collector, Ed 44. 5 Erickson, D, Australiana, Vol 34, No. 4, 2012, p.12. 6 Boyce, P 2014, ‘God and the City’, Journal of Anglican Studies, Vol 12, Issue 02, pp. 246–248. 7 Katherine McLeod, pers comm. 2012, quoting Foster’s Baronetage and Alumi Oxonenses. 8 Helen Brown, pers comm., 2012.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

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MAKER unknown | probably Ballarat

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

Early Austr alian goldfields earrings These foliate earrings have what appear to be 9ct wire hoops/loops, with hand-made catches, riveted on one side. The grapes are made from tiny gold nuggets, while the leaves appear to be hand engraved with veins and feature pin head stippling, which is created by hammering the gold with a steel pin. This technique was typical of mid century continental goldsmiths. The family story is that these earrings were hand made from nuggets found at the old Eureka Lead in Little Bendigo which is now called Nerrina. This correlates with information on the family who emigrated and settled in the gold mining township of Ballarat East before the Eureka uprising. Children were born to this family on the Eureka Diggings, and their descendants have been living in the district ever since.

DATE 1854 MAKER Leopold Wagner and Samuel Woollett | Ballarat Private Collection

Gold signet ring This cast Australian gold signet ring, boasts a shield engraved ‘BALLARAT’ on a banner, crossed a pick and shovel motif in the centre flanked by leaves and a rocker cradle beneath. The band of the ring has foliage motifs.1 Worn on the little finger, rings of this type were worn by successful miners, keen to show their wealth, or sent back to Britain as souvenirs of goldfields success. Punch marked W&W on the inside of the band, this marking secures its origin from the firm Wagner and Woollett, whose short lived business commenced in Melbourne in early 1854 and traded until December that year. No other marked examples of this firm’s work have been recorded. Wagner later joined forces with William Lamborn, and formed the firm Lamborn & Wagner in Melbourne from 1856–84. Woollett traded individually in Melbourne

from 1858–61 and was attracted to Dunedin, possibly due to the rushes in Otago in late 1861. He then went into business with John Hewitt, forming Woollett & Hewitt, Hewitt & Woolett, before trading alone as Samuel Woolett from 1882–1902.2 A similar ring is held by the Gold Museum, Ballarat, however the spelling is ‘BALLARAAT’. (see back cover image of this catalogue) Interestingly similar rings were, with the same spelling, possibly manufactured in Birmingham from metal alloys. At least one has been found in Ballarat by a prospector.

Cavill, K, Cocks, G and Grace, J 1992, Australian Jewellers, Gold & Silversmiths – Makers & Marks, Plate 293.

2 Reymond, M 2014, ‘Gold Rush jewellers of Melbourne and Dunedin: Wagner & Woolett, Lamborn & Wagner and Wollett & Hewitt’, Australiana Magazine, vol 36, no 4, pp. 4–12.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

DATE 1851–54

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MAKER unknown | probably Bendigo LENT BY Trevor Kennedy

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

PHOTO John McRae

Goldfields buckle ring A rare piece of Australian colonial history, this ring is inscribed internally ‘From the Break – O’ – Day Gold Mine, Bendigo, May 2nd, 1856 C.J. Brown’ It weighs a hefty half an ounce of gold. The buckle motif in the Victorian era represented, eternity, fidelity, loyalty, strength and protection. Its eternal loop is combined by its strength with which it holds up the virtue that it contains. Having originally begun as Bendigo the town’s name spawned from Bendigo Creek. It adopted the official name of Sandhurst, named after a military college in England in 1854. It was changed back to Bendigo in 1891 following a plebiscite when all the residents voted, with 1,515 in favour and only 267 against.

The name Bendigo, which was named after a shepherd, was always in popular use from the 1850s. It was argued that Bendigo was a ‘strong and manly name as befits a mining community,’ and that was more likely to attract further British investment in the goldfields.

Albumen print portr ait of C. J. Brown Mr. Brown was born at Leicester, his father being an officer in the Royal Navy. He came from one of the oldest families of the legal profession in England, and it was decided that he should follow in the footsteps of his predecessors. However, he married and left England, arriving in Adelaide about the year 1850 and in 1851 moved to Bendigo, Victoria.

This ring was bought in the UK 2010, and possibly arrived there as a gift to H Brown from his brother C.J Brown on the occasion of a lucky find in the Break O’ Day mine, or as a token of remembrance when his beloved brother returned permanently to Britain. The Break O’ Day gold mine was in Corindhap south of Ballarat.

Albumen print portrait of C. J. Brown Society of Old Bendigonians DATE 1853 PHOTO Bent Courtesy State Library of Victoria

In company with his brother he commenced business C. J. and H. Brown, storekeepers in High-street. They subsequently took up quartz mining, and had claims at Long Gully and at Break O’ Day, which returned very handsome yields, as much as thirty ounces to the ton being obtained at times. Having amassed a considerable fortune, both brothers paid a visit to England, where

Mr. Brown remained, and now carries on business as chemist in London. After Mr. C. J Brown’s return to the colony the yields from his quartz mines fell off, and he had also sunk a large portion of his early profits in other mining speculations. For the last 15 years of his life he was a victim to rheumatism and a complication of skin and other diseases, almost helpless, and had to be wheeled about the streets in a moveable arm-chair. He left a widow but no family. He was an exceedingly well read man, and retained his intellectual faculties up to the last minute.

Bendigo Advertiser, Wed 10 Sep 1884, DEATH OF MR. C. J. BROWN, p. 2.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

DATE 1856

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MAKER unknown | possibly in Ballarat Private Collection

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

PHOTO Andrew Simpson

Ballar at goldfields brooch A Ballarat goldfields brooch with glass cover over a centre oval medallion in relief with a windlass, bucket with nuggets, pick and shovel on gold mound and pierced lettering “BALLARAT” surrounded by a finely engraved vine leaf border. The use of vine leaves, tendrils and sometimes grapes in Victorian era jewellery represents the Christian faith, and could imply that faith, not luck or hard work was at the heart of success. This brooch represents a unique expression of goldfields jewellery design. The relief beneath the glass dome with BALLARAT lettering has features which recur in much later Western Australian pieces. Most notably the style of lettering which appears in open fretwork arched titles above the tools from the late 19C Western Australian goldfields brooches.

Illustrated in Czernis-Ryl, E 2011, Australian Gold and Silver, 1851–1951, Powerhouse Publishing, Ultimo, p. 14.

The Gold diggers portfolio consisting of a series of sketches of the Victoria gold fields taken by talented artists on the spot. DATE 1854 Thomas Ham, engraver IMAGE courtesy National Library of Australia

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

DATE c. 1855

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Souvenirs of global gold seeking: goldfields jewellery of the 19th Century

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Dr Linda Young Part 1: Gold digger jewellery in colonial Australia

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Most of the Australian gold was sent to London and minted into sovereigns, literally increasing the money supply of the British Empire. But some was made into jewellery by local jewellers, in fashionable 1850s styles, typically oval-shaped brooches to be worn at the neckline of a fitted bodice.

FIG. 1 An iconic image of gold digging positions roughly-clad diggers with the tools of their ambition. S.T. Gill drew, and Samuel Calvert engraved, this sketch to illustrate an 1858 issue of The News Letter of Australasia, or Narrative of Events, a monthly broadsheet to be sent Home by diggers. State Library of Victoria: NLA00/01/58/1

Some featured Australian animal and flower motifs. Even more unique was a style of brooch decorated with freestanding miniature gold-getting tools, and occasionally, a tiny digger. Less than a dozen such brooches are known, but more may yet emerge since interest in Australiana has stirred a market among collectors. It now guarantees their survival, where they might once have been melted down for their gold value, for jewellery has always been a portable form of wealth. The essential form follows conventional fashion of the mid-19th century: broadly oval, framed by scrolling golden foliage, a style that could equally be used to mount a cameo or a miniature or a roundel of semi-precious stone. But instead of a solid filling, these brooches contain a naive figurative arrangement of a gold digger working a windlass, bringing up a bucket filled with tiny nuggets, posed against a flat backdrop of golden mountains.

Balanced around the central group and hanging off the scrolls are the emblems of the digger: pick and shovel, gold pan, washing cradle (a Californian import), tub for turning over the raw washdirt, longhandled crucible, leather pouch for gold finds and a revolver to protect them.

LEFT FIG. 2 A gleeful digger brandishes his nugget finds, flanked by a crowbar, a spade and a pan flecked with nuggets. This brooch displays many of the characteristic tools in the unique figurative form of gold digger jewellery. The grape vine frame is typical of 1850s jewellery, as is the dove, adding a sentimental touch to this trophy of labour and luck. Private Collection RIGHT FIG. 3 Women were scarce on the goldfields, but it seems that a barmaid found it worth smiling at the uncouth patrons. S.T. Gill, ‘Counter attractions at the Royal’ DATE c. 1860 State Library of Victoria: H90.91/323

Such an explicit celebration of manual labour is unparalleled in the usually more glamorous and artistic field of jewellery. It speaks to the tremendous pride felt by successful diggers – though one wonders if the wives and sweethearts who received such gifts might have preferred something prettier. Mary Fortune, a genteel English journalist in Melbourne, wrote in 1855 of ‘a colonial brooch of the magnitude of – well, say – a small cheeseplate’, scathingly indicating the tasteless scale of some locally-made jewellery. Still, each brooch amounted to a good lump of precious gold. That is probably how it was looked at by a ‘flash colonial barmaid’, who is cited in an 1859 goldfields ballad as being surrounded by admirers, among whom: ‘One gives her a great digger brooch with cradle, tub and things/Others, lockets, pencil cases, big colonial rings…’. The figurative brooches would seem to be ‘digger brooches’.

Another woman to receive a digger brooch was Lola Montez, whose successes; tribulations and magnificent brooch are covered by Amber Evangelista in this catalogue. Inscribed to her on the reverse, it is the only securely provenanced and dated brooch. Lola cashed in the booty of her Australian trip back in California in 1856. The largest digger brooches are about 8cm wide, but there is a further series about 4cm across, without a figure and slightly less elaborate. They are composed of the standard range of miniature tools, including a bucket or nugget dangling from the ‘rope’ around the windlass, set in a leafy framework. Another group is a little plainer, with tools arranged on a rustic framework of twigs with no leaves, as in fig. 4. Little is known for sure of the makers of the digger brooches, because almost none is marked: a single brooch is known, stamped with the maker’s initials (matching a couple of possibilities). A few are engraved with locations, so far only ‘Victoria’ and ‘Ballarat’. Stylistic elements suggest that the well documented company, Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. of Sydney, made digger brooches incorporating their characteristic native

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

In 1849, a ne’er do well Englishman named Edward Hargraves left the British colony of New South Wales for the California gold rush. He was not very successful, but he returned to Australia in 1851 with Californian ideas about geology and techniques for washing gold out of river gravel. Just three months of prospecting enabled him to announce gold finds which launched a new global gold rush to New South Wales. It was almost immediately followed by discoveries in the southern colony of Victoria, which overtook California in 1853 to become the richest gold producer in the world until the South African rush in the 1880s.

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19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Newspaper advertisements and street directories document the presence of some thirty practising jewellers and goldsmiths in Victoria in the 1850–60s, and the small corpus of surviving brooches shows several different hands at work. Research is yet to make connections between items and makers’ names.

FIG. 4 Digger brooch on a rustic frame, showing the colonial gold digger’s tools. Brooches of this type are more modest than the biggest specimens, but they are equally peculiar in iconography. No comparative kind of brooch was ever made for butchers, bakers or builders. After all, no other labour produces the raw material of jewellery. Private Collection OPPOSITE FIG. 5 S.T. Gill sketched this street scene in Ballarat, which he titled ‘Improvident Diggers’, nicely illustrating the swaggering triumph of successful gold-seekers, 1852–53. State Library of Victoria: H86.7/36.

The vigour of their businesses is illustrated in a watercolour of 1853, depicting a pair of lucky diggers flaunting their assertive style, adorned with rings, pins and watch chains (fig. 5). The jeweller’s shop window behind glitters with golden goodies. The opulent show is a reminder that much, perhaps most, gold jewellery for sale in the colonies was imported from Britain, as were gemstones and cameos for setting in Australian gold. The digger brooches constitute a uniquely Australian form, celebrating the characteristics of the gold rush colonies and the democratic lottery of digging. In their extravagant salute to striking it rich, they challenged the conventions of the time about jewellery in good taste. It was based on a very Victorian notion that people should present themselves according to their class, essentially determined by money.

The not-very-old squattocracy of Victoria was shocked by the gold rush phenomenon of the common man making a fortune, and its obverse, the gentleman sunk into disgraceful poverty. The great digger brooches of the ballad would have been understood as flagrantly inappropriate for many of their wearers. In this sense, digger jewellery can be called subversive, thanks to its symbolic claim to public acknowledgement of the fruit of hard manual labour. Digger brooches only ever constituted a fraction of colonialmade jewellery, but their iconography encapsulates the values of the mythic foundation figure of Australia, the ‘digger.’ Nothing like the figurative digger brooches emerged from the California gold rush, where fancy buckles appear to have been the most typical local gold ornament made for the ‘forty-niners’. But the Australian digger brooches influenced jewellery made during the 1890s rush to Western Australia and South Africa, and that set off a transnational style made in Alaska/ Yukon Territory and the continental United States in the 1890s–1900s. In this sense, the digger brooch is perhaps Australia’s first contribution to global design. 

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

flora. But many of the figurative brooches are awkward and naïve in design.

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MAKER unknown | probably Victoria

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

LENT BY Trevor Hancock

Goldfields brooch This brooch is arguably one of Australia’s earliest miner’s brooches crafted from Australian gold. It bears similarities to two other brooches presented in the exhibition, featuring an openwork assemblage with rusticated framework of branches, and mining implements without a miner at the windlass.

DATE c. 1855 MAKER unknown | probably Victoria

Early miner’s brooch with bare br anches, mining tools and a pistol

LENT BY Trevor Kennedy

One of only five or so surviving pieces of the genre, this brooch has all of the necessary tools for success on the goldfields: pistol, windlass, bag of gold, sluice, spade, shovel, pan, bucket crowbar and crucible. The composition is topped with a wreath, possibly for remembrance.

Given the simplicity of this brooch, in particular the lack of foliage, compared with other early pieces, one can assume that this comes from the earliest period of goldfield brooch manufacture. Only five examples of this type of brooch are known to exist.

This type of brooch represents a world first in including working tools in wearable decorative arts.

These brooches were made as souvenirs of success at the diggings, and given to wives, sisters, daughters and sweethearts and commonly sent back to Britain as proof of ‘making good’.

Rendered in gold, it celebrates spoils of manual labour. It can readily be compared with others in this exhibition displaying the framework of branches. It was possibly made by the same workshop, as there are slight differences in the terminus of branches and the working of the gold, this indicates several hands.

McPhee, J 2001, ‘Gold and Australian Decorative Arts’, Gold and Civilisation, National Museum of Australia, Canberra.

While it cannot be proven, many experts feel strongly these pieces were made in Ballarat or Geelong.

Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian Jewellery, 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

DATE c. 1855

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MAKER William Lamborn | Melbourne

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

Early Austr alian miner’s brooch This brooch is possibly one of the earliest surviving examples of the goldfield brooches made by William Lamborn, who arrived in Melbourne in 1852 then joined with Leopold Wagner in 1858. It has a rustic framework of bare branches and leaves, mining implements and the conspicuous absence of a windlass. It is stamped on the reverse ‘WL’. The pan at the top may indicate the gold finds were from an alluvial source (surface gold and gold found in streams and waterways), which were largely exhausted during the early gold rush days in Victoria. This type of goldfield activity was rapidly replaced by deeper digging, and this may explain why the windlass is featured in other brooches of the era. Similarly, a spade for cutting soft earth rather than a shovel for shifting is employed.

DATE c. 1855 MAKER unknown | probably Victoria LENT BY Trevor Hancock

Goldfields brooch with leafy border Four large oak leaves frame symmetrically arranged mining implements, a windlass hauling a bucket of gold and a rocker cradle or sluice box. It is similar, although less sophisticated in execution to two brooches dating from c. 1855–60 held in the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences collection, Sydney, and illustrated in Schofield & Fahy (1991, p. 30 and 31). Perhaps as few as twenty of this type of brooch have survived the melting pot over the years.

Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian Jewellery, 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain, pp. 30–31.

Often jewellery was made from gold discovered on the goldfields and supplied to the jeweller by the owner. These commissioned pieces were frequently given to loved ones as symbols of success in the goldfields, and proudly worn high at the neck, demonstrating new-found wealth and good fortune.

Reymond, M 2014, ‘Gold rush jewellers of Melbourne and Dunedin: Wagner & Woollett, Lamborn & Wagner and Woollett & Hewitt’, Australiana Magazine, vol 36, no 4, pp. 4–12. Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian Jewellery, 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain, p.32.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

DATE 1856

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MAKER unknown | Victoria

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

LENT BY Trevor Hancock

Goldfields pendant This pendant is a most exciting recent discovery. Although it could be described as a fob, it is more likely to be pendant due to its size (5.8 x 4.2 cm) and the danger of this substantial piece of gold bearing quartz being damaged when worn in the vulnerable position in front of a gentleman’s stomach as a fob. Another aspect of its design points towards a pendant; the bail at the top is designed to take a chain as opposed to the clip from a fob chain, the ring pictured is a later addition. Details in its execution may confirm its pedigree as belonging to the same workshop as the brooch on the previous page. The branch arrangement of the frame seems to be unique to this workshop, which may have employed several jewellers, and this may account for the stylistic variations seen in the fine details on the terminations of the branches. The gold bearing quartz was mined after the alluvial sources had been exhausted. This places the piece at a later date of manufacture. Quartz reef mining commenced in Ballarat by the late 1850s. The setting of bare branches is found in few remaining pieces, including the brooches previously described on pages 30 and 31.

Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian Jewellery, 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain.

DATE c. 1860 MAKER unknown | Australia Private Collection

Goldfields brooch with miner An unusual goldfields brooch with a figure of a successful miner holding a large nugget stands atop a washing pan filled with gold. The border of grapes, vine leaves and tendrils surrounds him with symbols of Christian faith, and is topped with a dove, a Victorian-era symbol of the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit, peace, messengers of Venus or love and fidelity. They could also represent remembrance for a departed loved one. The nugget dangling below is a delightful metaphor for the origin of the metal below the ground, exhumed by the triumphant digger. The gift of jewellery was a popular Victorian-era tradition, and saturated with sentiment. The symbolism contained in jewellery designs is deliberate, but can be misleading as several meanings can be assigned to the same symbol. Here, commonplace objects like mining implements convey a new meaning; a display of success and wealth, and the means by which it was achieved. Although multiple meanings are possible, this piece would have undoubtedly been instantly recognised by the receiver. Other examples of brooches from this era and genre have tiny miners at the windlass, with two known examples featuring a banner engraved with “BALLARAT”. One of these Ballarat brooches, featuring two miners and another framed by acanthus leaves has been included in this exhibition. Refer to Schofield & Fahy (1991, pp. 30–31), and Czernis-Ryl (2014, p. 14).

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

DATE c. 1855–65

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The ‘Little Aussie Battlers’ in Austr alian Art

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Trevor Hancock

Jewellery from the Australian gold rush eras captured the essence of the Australian landscape, people, industry, flora and fauna with clarity, precision and feeling decades before it appeared on paper or canvas. Unknown goldsmiths who created the mining brooches of the early 1850s, Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. of Sydney, Lamborn & Wagner and Edward Schafer of Melbourne, Turner of Beechworth and Leviny of Castlemaine, together with great pieces by JM Wendt and Steiner of Adelaide, caught the essence of Australian life better than any sketcher or painter before the Heidelberg School.

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

The well-respected Australian art critic Robert Hughes wrote: Granted the minor exceptions of Gill, Glover, Martens and Buvelot, a whole century passed without producing anything but mediocre, amateurish or thwarted paintings. There is little in the history of Australian Art between 1788 and 1885 that would interest an historian, except the way that painter, set down in an environment for whose forms their training had not prepared them ….. (Hughes 1966, p. 51) This however is not the case when it comes to Australian colonial jewellery from the second half of the nineteenth century. Early, complicated, Victorian goldfields miner’s brooches were arguably the first Australian works of art to truly capture the dry, hot “hard yakka” of the goldfields. When holding a brooch one can feel the heat and dust, smell the bush and hear the

sound of metal digging hard, bleached, exhausted ground. When you see the colour of gold, it is easy to understand the alluring effect it has had on man for centuries. Miner’s or Goldfields brooches display the crucial implements of the gold miner, with the earliest examples framed by leafless branches as seen in Fig. 1. With perhaps fewer than six known to exist, these important early examples of truly unique Australian gold masterpieces are now on the “near extinction” list of Australian treasures. The pendant shown in Fig. 2 appears to be from the same workshop. It features a sizeable piece of polished gold quartz, which demonstrates fascination at the time with gold in its raw, newly excavated form, and that the size of colonial gold jewellery from that era was often only restricted by the ability of wearers to bear the weight. Examples perhaps as little as 12 months later were larger, contained more implements, and were framed by leafy branches or long wide leaves including oak and acanthus and included miners at the windlass. During this period of gold smithing (1851–60), the arrangement of the framing and mining implements was always symmetrical in presentation. The early example seen in Fig. 3 was conceived without a miner, and with fewer mining implements than later and this suggests the brooch is a very early piece. The need for cash during depressions and changing tastes have ensured the scarcity of such jewels with only six known pieces in existence. It is worth noting that this genre of Goldfields jewellery has no makers’ marks, with two known exceptions. A similar miner’s brooch held in a private collection, although much sparser in implements, bears the marks of Lamborn & Wagner of Melbourne, who were active from 1856–84. A brooch bearing the banner ‘BALLARAT’, together with the unknown maker’s mark

TOP LEFT FIG. 1 Goldfields brooch DATE c. 1855 MAKER unknown | Victoria | possibly Geelong LENT BY Trevor Hancock TOP RIGHT FIG. 2 Goldfields pendant DATE c. 1855–65 MAKER unknown | Victoria | possibly Geelong LENT BY Trevor Hancock BOTTOM LEFT FIG. 3 Goldfields brooch with leafy border DATE c. 1855 MAKER unknown | Victoria | possibly Geelong LENT BY Trevor Hancock BOTTOM RIGHT FIG. 4 Openwork brooch with emu DATE c. 1854–60 MAKER Hogarth, Erichsen & Co (attributed to) | Sydney LENT BY Trevor Hancock

‘G&A’, is illustrated in Schofield & Fahy 1991, p. 31. Although mining continued throughout the second half of the nineteenth century in Australia, a dominant use of such mining implements was not seen in jewellery until the Western Australian gold rushes which began in Halls Creek in 1885. Colonial Australian jewellery often lacked precious stones due to cost and enormous difficulties in importing the gems. Despite this, they display the raw beauty of gold and the amazing ability of the goldsmith to capture life on the goldfields and represent creative output and originality which is under-valued in the broader assessment of visual arts and crafts from the era. While early Goldfields jewellery uniquely captured the digger lifestyle it was the work of Hogarth, Erichsen & Co of Sydney which

initially captured the unique flora and fauna of Australia in pieces so original they can be regarded as works of art. Castellani and Giuliano, together with other great jewellers in London and Europe looked to the past for inspiration. They turned to the classic architecture of Assyria, Etruria and Mesopotamia. They copied and recreated Roman jewellery, Etruscan earrings, Greek torcs and Assyrian armlets. Goldsmiths in Australia embraced their new surroundings, creating new styles exploiting the magic and mystery of unique flora and fauna of the country. This type of innovation represented a break from the centuries of reinterpretation of older ideas and recycling motifs. It was in keeping with the Victorian era fascination with plants, animals and the discovery of new and exotic species not found on the European continent. Wearable

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

The discovery of gold is regarded as the most important political, social and economic event in Australia’s history. Also, although almost totally unrecognised, it is arguably the most important event in Australian art history.

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Australian natural history tableaus, finely crafted with Australian gold, made for wonderful souvenirs and gifts to send or take overseas as proof of colonial advancement as well as to satisfy Victorian interests in the wildlife of the Antipodes. Let there be no doubt that the gold craft creations by many expatriate European colonial goldsmiths, especially those of Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. (active 1854–61), are equal to the best in the world at the time, and far more innovative. These master goldsmiths arranged accurate representations of waratahs, native pear, banksia, tree ferns, kangaroos, emus (as seen in Fig. 4), dingos and cockatoos into a unique pictorial language, which was much emulated by gold-smithing peers. These early depictions of our Australia’s native treasures have long been over-shadowed by artists with brushes and pens. Foreign goldsmiths used gold work as a base for compositions employing precious stones, enamel, crystal and glass. Australian goldsmiths often relied on gold alone, letting the medium speak for itself. Small gems, mainly garnet, emeralds and paste are included in a few early examples, before citrine and amethyst became more widespread later.

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All but one of the Hogarth Erichsen & Co.’s breathtaking openwork bracelets are in public collections, however several of their brooches are still within reach of private collectors. Unfortunately, many of their brooches are currently unattributed to their workshop; this needs to be corrected. The very brief period of production by the Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. workshop may have lasted only seven or so years (1854–61) but produced a body of work which is testament to their skill and innovation, and influenced many other jewellers of the time.

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It is a sobering thought that perhaps in another 20 years, most of these Australian gold masterpieces will be housed in public collections and no-one will be able to wear or touch them (without gloves) again! It is now time to move these pieces from side cabinets and storage to share the centre stage in gallery and museum spaces with great Australian paintings, because these pieces bring to life so much Australian history. In their own small but poignant way, they tell of the path to nationhood in a way that many men, women and families participated in by producing, buying and wearing Australian bling. 

Hughes, R 1966, The Art of Australia, Pelican Books, London.

DATE c. 1858 MAKER Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. (attributed to) | Sydney LENT BY Trevor Kennedy

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

PHOTO John McRae

Brooch with emu and k angaroo This is possibly an early piece as the bare branches echo early digger brooch designs. There are similarities with the minute details on the branches, in particular the way the branches terminate and the fine stippled effect. This is an early example of a tableau style of Australiana brooch, which appears to have been pioneered by Hogarth, Erichsen and Co. in Sydney. Attributions to this maker are difficult as pieces are not marked and they had many followers. As this brooch deviates from the oval shape generally favoured in the era, it may also indicate it is an early example of the native flora and fauna genre in Australian gold jewellery.

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MAKER Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. (attributed to) | Sydney LENT BY Trevor Kennedy

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

PHOTO John McRae

Brooch with emu, k angaroo and gr ass tree

DATE c. 1860

Gold openwork brooch with a kangaroo and an emu below a grass tree and flanked by what appear to be native lilies, leaves and scrub.

LENT BY Trevor Kennedy

MAKER Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. (attributed to) | Sydney PHOTO John McRae

Earrings with emu, k angaroo and gum leaves Unmarked ear pendants featuring the ubiquitous kangaroo and emu are framed with exquisitely detailed eucalypt leaves. Note the colouration of the gold on some of the leaves, which has a different hue caused by variations in temperature and the size of nanoparticles in the gold. The colouration sometimes found in gold jewellery is called firescale, and in this instance appears to be from the formation of cupric oxide, where the copper element in the gold oxidises at the surface. Other examples of this maker’s work have similar colouration which can also go to quite a bright pink and orange, and appears to be a deliberate effort with great effect. Discolouration can also occur if gold is stored for too long in an enclosed environment, with some form of chemical or adhesive which off-gasses* causing a chemical reaction with trace elements in the gold or whatever other metal is used to make the alloy. One can make red gold, green gold, mauve gold for example, and there are recipes for them. Alternatively this maker is possibly attempting to make a coloured alloy and it was not properly mixed through in the melt.

Dorothy Erickson, Personal communication, 2016. * O ff-gas is a gas that is produced as a by-product of an industrial process or that is given off by a manufactured object or material.

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DATE c. 1860

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MAKER Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. (attributed to) | Sydney

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

Gold Brooch with emu

DATE c. 1860

This brooch is one of small number of surviving brooches made by the renowned Australian colonial jewellers Hogarth, Erichsen & Co., who were based in Sydney from 1852.

LENT BY Trevor Hancock

Known brooches by this company all are of a similar style. They feature Australian fauna and flora in oval frames which vary in style. The fauna and flora is in similar arrangements, with species commonly found around Sydney/Blue Mountains region including tree ferns, banksias, bull rushes, eucalypts, grass trees, emus and kangaroos. Other pieces by these makers including openwork bracelets have dingos, native birds, possums and even more rarely, Aboriginal Australian figures.

MAKER Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. (attributed to) | Sydney

Austr alian colonial gold brooch It is one of the largest examples known of the work attributed to the celebrated partnership between Danish-born Julius Hogarth and Conrad Erichsen which lasted from 1854–61. This brooch has many of the features found on other attributed pieces. Note especially the colouration of the gold on some of the leaves. Close study of photographs of Hogarth, Erichsen & Co.’s work indicates slight variation in the treatment of production markings. This may be due to the number of jewellers employed by the company at the time, who included Christian Ludwig Qwist, Christian Hafer, A. Kosuitz, Herman Finckh and James Bowen.

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DATE c. 1860

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MAKER Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. | Sydney

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

LENT BY Trevor Hancock

Silver threepenny A rare silver threepenny Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. trade token, dated 1860. These rare tokens were struck to provide the partners with small currency to use to acquire refreshments and other small necessities of life. At this time currency was very limited, other than gold coins. The value in these threepenny pieces was in the value of the silver content. The silver in some of their issues was of so low a quality that they were withdrawn under Government pressure. It is believed these tokens were struck using J.C. Thornthwaite’s press and they are regarded as Australia’s first coinage to use native flora and fauna.

DATE c. 1860–75 MAKER Dragaer & Kellinghausen | Melbourne LENT BY Anne Schofield Antiques PHOTO courtesy Anne Schofield Antiques

R are gold ring with emu and k angaroo This is a rare Australian 18 carat gold cast ring with engraved background, and applied emu and kangaroo. Rings of this signet style were worn by men on their little fingers. It sits beautifully on a lady’s hand on middle fingers though, and it is impossible to tell which gender it was made for. Dragaer and Kellinghausen were active between 1857 and 1877.

Cavill, K, Cocks, G and Grace, J 1992, Australian Jewellers and Silversmiths – Makers & Marks, C.G.C. Gold Pty Ltd, Roseville, p. 318.

Cavill, K, Cocks, G and Grace, J 1992, Australian Jewellers and Silversmiths – Makers & Marks, C.G.C. Gold Pty Ltd, Roseville. Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian jewellery: 19th and early 20th century, Antique Collectors Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

DATE 1860

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MAKER William Paterson (attributed to) | Geelong, Victoria

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

Brooch with k angaroo and ferns William Paterson advertised making jewellery to order from Ballarat gold. Ferns were a popular motif in the Victorian era, and curiosity about this type of exotic flora spawned Pteridomania, meaning fern madness or fern craze. Priest, historian, university professor, novelist and friend of Charles Darwin Charles Kingsley coined the term in his book Wonders of the Shore: Your daughters, perhaps, have been seized with the prevailing ‘Pteridomania’…and wrangling over unpronounceable names of species…and yet you cannot deny that they find enjoyment in it, and are more active, more cheerful, more self-forgetful over it, than they would have been over novels and gossip, crochet and Berlin-wool. At least you will confess that the abomination of ‘Fancy-work’—that standing cloak for dreamy idleness (not to mention the injury which it does to poor starving needlewomen)—has all but vanished from your drawing-room since the ‘Lady-ferns’ and ‘Venus’s hair’ appeared; and that you could not help yourself looking now and then at the said ‘Venus’s hair,’ and agreeing that Nature’s real beauties were somewhat superior to the ghastly woollen caricatures which they had superseded.

Kingsley, C 1855, The Wonders of the Shore, Macmillan and Co, London.

DATE c. 1860 MAKER unknown LENT BY the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences | Sydney PURCHASED 1994 PHOTO Ryan Hernandez

Openwork gold brooch with emer ald This is a fine example of a high-carat gold openwork brooch based on designs for which Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. of Sydney developed a reputation in the 1850s. The maker of this 18 carat gold brooch is not identified. The brooch is set with one small emerald, of oval shape, chased and engraved openwork, and engraved openwork design featuring a kangaroo and emu. The kangaroo and emu stand with bodies in profile and heads turned to the front. They flank a plant with pointed leaves with a tall stem which rises to a five-petal flower set with a small emerald at centre at the top of the brooch. The kangaroo and emu stand on rocky ground and four large water lily leaves spread to the outer edge of the brooch. There is a hinged brooch pin at the back.

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DATE c. 1855

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DATE c. 1860 MAKER unknown | Australia Private Collection

Emu brooch with enamel and seed pearl The enamel background of this brooch and the inclusion of a tiny seed pearl on the flower stalk make it a rarity. It has a glass-covered locket on the back which may have once enclosed a photograph or a lock of hair.

DATE c. 1870 MAKER JM Wendt | Adelaide Private Collection PHOTO Andrew Simpson

Gilt silver emu earrings Finely chased and stamped on reverse, WENDT and 15 for JM Wendt of Adelaide (active 1854–1917).

JM Wendt was one of the two most prominent jewellery firms in Adelaide, situated in Rundle Street not far from Henry Steiner. This perhaps explains why both of these makers generally chose to mark their work.

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The silver beneath the top layer of gold has begun to oxidise, discolouring the alloy. Perhaps these were made for a clientele with a lower disposable income than those who purchased solid gold pieces.

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MAKER Brunkhorst | Adelaide

Austr aliana reversible gold and silver brooch with glass dome and cameo.

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

DATE c. 1900 MAKER J M Wendt | Adelaide

Emu eggshell brooch or cloak clasp with emu and k angaroo

Private Collection

This marvellous large reversible 15 carat gold and silver gilt dress brooch features a kangaroo, emu and grass tree on rocky ground made from what appears to be an alluvial nugget beneath a protective glass dome. Finely worked leaves, vines and grapes frame the composition, and unusually feature a kangaroo and an emu (which upon close inspection appears more like a cross between a dinosaur and a rattite) and an exquisite little ring-tailed possum at the bottom, whose tail forms part of the safety chain fixture. The reverse features a carved cameo of Eros atop his celestial cloud being towed by a mythical bird, while Cupid and Psyche canoodle below with a quiver of arrows at their feet. The cameo would have undoubtedly been imported from Italy. Presented in an original blue lined box marked Brunkhorst and Late Steiner, Adelaide. The cameo appears to be carved from hard stone.

This brooch or cloak clasp features two cameos fashioned from emu eggshell, depicting an emu and kangaroo. Generally speaking the emu was situated on the right and the kangaroo on the left but in this instance the composition is reversed. J M Wendt was known for his fine silver mounted emu egg inkstands, as well as fine colonial gold jewellery.

Emu eggshell cameo portr ait of Aboriginal man Emu eggshell cameo pendant, featuring a portrait of an unidentified Aboriginal man, with gold backing. These pieces represent a strong market for Australian souvenir jewellery which was popular in the lead-up to, and as a consequence of, Federation in 1901.

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DATE c. 1885

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Lola Montez: More than a Mistress

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Amber Evangelista

Although she herself admitted to using her beauty and sexuality to her advantage, Montez contributed more to history than a long line of lovers and a repertoire of Spanish dances. Over her lifetime she contributed to a revolution and the abdication of a king, travelled the globe, amassed a considerable fortune, became an author and wrote and spoke of gender, politics and love. An innovative and independent woman, she was never held back by criticism or expectations, and instead made it her mission to push boundaries.

OPPOSITE Hand coloured print of Lola Montez titled “L’Enchantresse Espagnole”. Engraved by G. Zobel, possibly from a painting by J. G. Middleton. London, published August 28, 1847. LENT BY Arts Centre Melbourne | The Australian Ballet Collection

This makes it all too easy to romanticise Montez. She was known for a terrible temper, an impassive nature, poor judgement, narcissism and a tendency to resort to violence. She carried a dagger at her hip and regularly beat adversaries with a horsewhip. Her life was – and continues to be – deeply tangled in lies and creative embellishments, making the truth about her impossible to uncover. Even today, Montez retains a certain mythical mystique about her.

What these multiple stories and layers of fiction do tell us though is that at the very least Lola Montez was a very public figure who inspired a wealth of books, letters, newspaper articles, songs, poems and memories. Regardless of the truth of the stories surrounding her the commotion she caused across several continents and indeed several centuries, is indisputable. Montez was born Maria Dolores Eliza Rosanna in Ireland in 1818, to Edward Gilbert and his young wife, who claimed descent from Spanish nobility.1 She spent her school years at boarding schools in Britain and France, and asserted her independence at an early age. In 1837 she eloped with Lieutenant Thomas James at the age of 19, in defiance of her mother’s orders to marry an older judge. The pair relocated to India, but the marriage was not to last. After eloping with another bride, Thomas won a judicial separation on the grounds of Maria’s alleged adultery during their ship passage. Independent and inventive in nature, Maria travelled to Spain where she trained as a dancer and reinvented herself as Donna Lola Montez. She returned to England in 1843 and made her debut on stage at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London.2 The performance was not successful. Montez then travelled to Paris, where she made creative changes to her identity and dance routine. There, she ingeniously crafted an identity and mystique about herself as well as a public reputation for her intensity, seductive beauty and suggestive dances. Biographers writing of this time in Montez’s life tend to emphasise her sexual freedom and name her the mistress of composer Franz Lizt, writer Alexandre Dumas, and journalist Alexandre Dujarier.3 In these representations, Montez’s is often viewed as a sultry seductress, who by exercising her sexual power, brought great men under her influence. Montez’s contributions to

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In 1855 Victoria’s goldfields were visited by one of the world’s most notorious women: the entrepreneurial actress and dancer Lola Montez. Most histories cast Montez, remembered mostly for her reputedly scandalous dance performances and temper, as the clever seductress who used the power of her sex with great success, travelling the world as a dancer and actress, and accumulating numerous lovers and substantial wealth. While biographies and representations of Montez recognise her industrious and innovative nature, they do have a tendency to characterise her at best as an outrageous but successful courtesan, and at worst something of a conniving hussy. Attention is rarely drawn to her intelligence, creative nature, her impact on political history or the strength of character which allowed her to defy convention.

of teachers and students. Montez had openly criticised the influence Catholic conservatives yielded in the monarchy. Her disdain for ‘Jesuit control’ was well known and earned her the support of liberal student campaigners.7 Catholic conservatives and members of Ludwig’s court were horrified by Montez’s outspokenness and distasteful behaviour, but it was her influence over the King that caused the most concern. Regardless of protest and against all advice, in 1847 Ludwig bestowed on Montez the title of Countess of Landsfield. From her title she enjoyed significant power and continued to push her liberal principles.8 It is rumoured that it was under her influence that Ludwig dismissed the ultra-montane administration, and closed a large university following riots and protests.9 Later, Montez would declare that it was she who ‘moulded the mind of the King to the love of Freedom’, describing herself as ‘engaged in political business; you might call me prime minister if you please’.10 For Bavarian citizens, Montez’s influence and title was a dividing issue, and served as a trigger point for unrest. By early 1848 public riots and demonstrations forced Ludwig to abdicate, and Montez fled to Switzerland.11

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these relationships and her status as an artist in her own right is often overlooked. As an innovative and independent thinker, an actor, and self-proclaimed ‘artiste of the dance’, Montez was involved in the European artistic moments Lizst, Dumas and Dujarier were such famous participants in. Far from one-dimensional role as the mistress and a muse, Montez could be considered a bohemian in her own right. Testament to this is her creative ability to re-invent herself and constantly evolve her craft in defiance of convention.

LEFT Montez, with cigarette in hand. IMAGE courtesy Sovereign Hill Museum Association | Gold Museum | Ballarat Historical Society collection RIGHT Lola Montez framed portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler (the original oil painting made in 1847 is hung in King Ludwig of Bavaria’s Residenz, now Residenzmuseum, in Munich) Watercolour and oil on vellum 8 x 6 cm Private Collection

In 1845, after the death of one of her lovers in Paris, Montez moved on to a successful tour of central Europe, visiting Stuttgart, Vienna and Frankfurt.4 By 1846, she had set her sights on the glittering capital of Bavaria: Munich. By this time, she had begun to develop a habit of collecting valuable jewellery and gifts from her admirers, which provided her with a small wealth to supplement her earnings as a dancer. Montez was a skilled conversationalist and gifted in the art of reinvention. Her skills, her beauty and her dubious claims to Spanish aristocracy garnered her a considerable network of admirers, and a growing collection of valuable gifts. Her visit to Bavaria would prove most fruitful for adding to this collection.

On the 8th of October 1846 Montez secured herself an audience with King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Ludwig had a fascination with beautiful and exotic women and agreed to engage the dancer at the Royal Theatre for her debut, which he attended. There she danced the ‘Oleano’, an early version of her famous Spider Dance.5 Although her dancing ability was somewhat questioned, her ‘fiery eye’, spirit and beauty entranced the audience. Ludwig was captivated, and soon wrote to his closest friend of his passion for the ‘beautiful, intelligent, spirited goodhearted twenty two year old’.6 He quickly endowed her with a property, a significant annuity, and a small fortune. It was at this time that Ludwig commissioned a portrait of Montez by Joseph Karl Stieler for his infamous ‘Gallery of Beauties’. The portrait, with its evocative rendition of her famous eyes, curved brows and thick hair remains one of the best known and most commonly replicated portrayals of Montez. At her throat sits one of her many jewels. By the end of 1847 Montez had carved herself a position of power and influence in Munich society. Although many were offended by her arrogance and oftendistasteful behaviour Montez gathered a group of followers when she campaigned to the King for liberal reforms on behalf

The importance of Montez’s role in what was a crucial moment in German history is debatable. Some attribute Ludwig’s abdication and political unrest entirely to Montez, others view her simply as a narcissistic seductress whose political influence is spectacularly overemphasised.12 Either way, Montez used her skills of selfinvention and promotion successfully enough to impact how we remember Ludwig’s reign, and the changes Bavaria underwent in the late 1840s. Her contributions to German history – whether small or large, detrimental or advantageous, are remembered to this day. This may however be due to Montez’s spectacular ability to self-promote. She was a flagrant liar, creatively contorting the truth to build her reputation and an air of mystique. Her self-publicising and self-invention was a significant contributor to her infamy.

German cigarette card DATE c. 1935 6 x 5 cm COLLECTION Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka

Following the Bavarian scandal Montez returned to Britain, where after a charge was brought against her for bigamy she departed for the Californian goldfields.13

On this frontier-land, where life was rougher and the women tougher, Montez was at home. Here she refined her taste for alcohol and cigars and held regular salons for discussion of politics and the arts.14 After five years as the source of both uproar and admiration, She grew restless and after a brief return to Britain, turned her sights to the cities and goldfields of Australia. Australian newspapers had followed Montez from the start of her career. In 1847 an article in the Australian press humorously declared ‘… the vagaries of Donna Lola Montez continue to take precedence: in these days of testimonial-giving, it is thought that newspaper proprietors ought to present her with something handsome for having furnished materials for an article or two’.15 Montez was guaranteed an interested audience. However, her exact reasons for travelling to Australia are difficult to ascertain. Perhaps her positive experiences on the goldfields of California attracted her, or maybe as a self-declared ‘devoteddemocrat’, news of republican unrest in Ballarat may have peaked her interest.16 Perhaps she simply saw an opportunity for new admirers and profit to be had. Whatever the reason, in 1855 Montez hired a troupe of actors in San Francisco and set sail for Australia aboard the Fanny Major. After a ten-week journey she arrived unannounced in Sydney, and quickly scheduled six performances at the Victoria Theatre of a performance entitled ‘Lola Montez in Bavaria’. Later, she announced performances of the infamous ‘Spider Dance’. One newspaper account described the dance: ‘The full perfection of her frame was revealed as she swung gracefully to the centre of the stage, and paused for a moment. She made it appear evident that she was entangled in the filaments of a spider’s web…. The fight against the spiders became more and more hectic, as she danced with abandon and fire, and at the conclusion she had succeeded in shaking them out upon the floor, where she stamped them to death … the audience was held spellbound, and somewhat horror struck, but when the dance ended, the applause was thunderous.’17

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‘The “Spider Dance” is a national one, and is witnessed with delight by all classes in Spain, and by both sexes from Queen to peasant. I have always looked upon this dance as a work of high art; and I reject with positive scorn the insinuation of your contemporary that I wish to pander to a morbid taste for what is improper or indelicate.’19

LEFT Panic ensues at Lola’s arrival in Australia, Melbourne Punch, 1855. IMAGE courtesy State Library Victoria RIGHT Sketch of Lola Montez dancing the Spider Dance. DATE 1855 MAKER John Michael Skipper IMAGE courtesy State Library Victoria

Rather than the indecency of her dances, it was Montez’s fiery temper that once again threatened her reputation. After she fired members of her troupe and left them stranded, a bailiff issued a summons against her. In defiance of this, she boarded the steamer Warratah, and sailed to Melbourne. There, she played a brief series of performances, before departing for Adelaide. It was here that John Michael Skipper captured his famous sketches of Montez performing the spider dance, and smoking in the green room. During her stay,

Montez demonstrated her reputation for generosity, and performed at a fundraising dance for the Freemasons. In return, she was gifted several impressive pieces of Australian gold jewellery.20 After over a month in Adelaide, Montez returned to Sydney, and again to Melbourne at the end of December. It was then that she was given an enormous, ostentatious gold miners brooch by her admirers, which is now held held in the National Gallery of Australia’s collection. The brooch features an intricate central motif, crowned with a row of garnets. A message to Montez engraved on the reverse reads ‘Presented Melbourne Dec. 28 1855 to Madame Lola Montez by her Friends in Victoria as a proof of their esteem.’21 Linda Young describes the stylistic framework of the brooch as conventional: a central panel decorated with finely wrought vine leaves.22 The central panel of the brooch, however, is anything but conventional, and features a collection of miner’s equipment including a pick, bucket, windlass, and pistol as well as a leg of meat.23 Interestingly, the central panel and garnets are presented as a coat of arms of sorts, with the miner’s equipment forming a shield, topped with its crown of garnets. An emu and kangaroo support the shield, and sit atop a scroll inscribed ‘Victoria’. Although not unique, this brooch is a significant example of Australian goldfields jewellery. The self-styled miner’s coat of arms represented a burgeoning

Following her return to Melbourne, Montez embarked on a regional tour of Melbourne, Victoria. She travelled first to Ballarat, where she opened at the Victoria Theatre with her infamous Spider Dance and was received by the Ballarat miners with enormous enthusiasm. Regardless, newspaper editor Henry Seekamp was less than positive in his appraisal of her performance and published a scathing review in The Ballarat Times. Furious, Montez challenged Seekamp in the streets of Ballarat, and laid into him with a horsewhip. News of their fight spread to Melbourne, where Melbourne Punch named it ‘The Battle of Ballarat’.26 Speaking of the incident at the end of a performance, Montez snidely remarked ‘Just take out the Es, and what is left of his name becomes Skamp’.27 Montez had made a habit of responding with a fast wit and a sharp tongue to any public criticisms at the end of her performances. On this occasion Montez declared with characteristic fire that ‘though merely a woman’ she ‘offered to meet him with pistols’ but ‘the cur who attacks a lady’s character runs away from my challenge.’28 With typical self confidence Montez denied responsibility, and stated only that ‘really it was not my fault. His attacks on my art were most ungentlemanly.’29

LEFT Brooch presented to Lola Montez Unknown silversmith Brooch c.1855 gold, rubies 8 cm (height) National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 2014 RIGHT Lola’s attack on Henry Seekamp, depicted in the Melbourne Punch, February 1856. IMAGE courtesy State Library of Victoria

Seekamp’s attack on Montez’s performance and character had little effect on her popularity. Instead, Montez made use of the conflict as a means of self-publicity. The incident had only served to confirm the fierce spirit and independence she was famous for.30 Undeterred, she moved on to Bendigo and Castlemaine. On the goldfields she displayed the know-how she had gathered in California, drank, danced and smoked, and descended down mine-shafts with a pluck that delighted diggers.31 One can easily imagine Montez, with a dagger at her hip and a cigarette in her mouth, confidently striding about the camps followed by a crowd of admirers. One account describes her descending on a rope down a mine shaft with one foot in a noose and a glass of champagne in her hand to frenzied cheering and applause. This fiery spirit and independence appealed to miners, who showered her with gifts of gold jewellery and nuggets. For Montez the Australian goldfields tour had been an entertaining and highly profitable endeavour. Upon its conclusion she and her troupe departed for Melbourne and planned her return to San Francisco. On the return passage, Montez’s manager and lover Frank Folland mysteriously disapeared from the ship and was never seen again. Upon her return to California, Montez auctioned off her jewels, with the rumoured purpose of providing for Folland’s widow and children. She listed 89 lots with Duncan and Co, including thirteen pieces of ‘Massive Australian Gold Jewellery’.32 Aside from these, researchers have also identified five

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Crowds were divided over her performance. As always, Montez found amongst her audience a considerable number of admirers. One journalist after meeting Montez wrote that ‘I found her – much to my surprise to be a very simple-mannered, well-behaved, cigar-loving young lady.’18 Others were shocked at her sensual performance of the Spider Dance and openly criticised a perceived lack of decency. Montez would have none of it. In response to a particularly scathing review by The Argus, she wrote to the editor of The Sydney Morning Herald:

sense of Victorian and gold digger identity.24 The enormous size of the brooch and its unconventional symbols speak loudly of Victoria’s wealth of gold, and of the rising class of miners who made their fortunes on the goldfields. The brooch is the only known remaining piece of jewellery Montez was given on her Australian tour.25

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other pieces in the auction catalogue that are thought to have been Australian.33 Lots 77–89, titled ‘Massive Australian Jewellery’, featured thirteen pieces of Australian jewellery including such items as ‘1 Australian nugget’, ‘1 massive and beautifully wrought Australian locket’, ‘1 vest chain, with effigy of miner’ and ‘1 Australian gold Scarf Pin-The Emeu’. By far the most remarkable item listed is a set of ‘massively and curiously wrought’ bracelets and brooch. The quality of the piece is remarked upon as ‘the richest work of the kind that has ever left Australia … nature and art are most skilfully combined … .’34 Her collection of Australian jewellery was certainly substantial. Soon after, Montez retired from dancing. Whether in order to provide another stream of income or to satisfy her narcissistic streak, she later published a ghost-written autobiography then commenced a tour delivering a series of lectures on history, politics, beauty and love. She then authored a book of beauty advice and witty tips for gentlemen on the business of courting, entitled ‘The Arts of Beauty; Or secrets of a lady’s toilet with hints to gentlemen on the art of fascinating’. Although the content of her lectures and writings was mainly intended for the opening of her autobiography, she remarked

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

‘Such is the social and moral fabric of the world that a woman must be content with an exceedingly narrow sphere of action, or she must take the worst consequences of daring to be an innovator and a heretic’.35 Montez herself experienced the sting of this. Although many delighted in her confidence and fierce independence, many others were outraged. Unfortunately for Montez ‘the worst consequences’ continue to be realised to day. As Joanna Gilmore of the National Portrait Gallery aptly notes, ‘local memory has been inclined to see her mainly as a saucy sideshow: a famous performer who alternately seduced and scandalised audiences’.36 Sadly, she is mostly remembered for her sensual dances and multiple lovers. Her creativity, innovation, intelligence and political influence – great or small – are too often overlooked and understated.

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It is difficult to ascertain with certainty the level of influence she had claim to. Memory of Montez, written and spoken, is intricately tied up with fiction. Montez herself was an incorrigible liar, and her self-distributed exaggerations and falsities continue to punctuate histories of her. As Horace Wyndham so aptly declared “one has to milk a hundred cows to get even a pint of Lola Montez cream.”37 Regardless of the fiction Montez’s memory is entangled in, her importance as an example of an innovative woman who defied convention still stands. I think Montez herself would agree. The beginning of ‘The Art of Beauty’ is perhaps most indicative of her spirit and personality, and a fitting way to end this exploration of her character. Montez began with a nod to all men and women ‘who are not afraid of themselves, who trust so much in their own souls that they dare to stand up in the might of their own individuality, to meet the tidal currents of the world.’38 

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NOTES 1

Cannon, M 1947, ‘Montez, Lola (1818–61)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Canberra, published first in hard copy. Viewed December 2015 <http://adb.anu.edu.au/ biography/montez-lola-4226/text6815>.

2 Ibid. 3 Wyndham, H 1935, Magnificent Montez: From Courtesan to Convert, Hutchinson & Co, London, pp. 78–83. 4 Ibid, p. 91. 5 Seymore, B 1996, Lola Montez: A Life, Vail Ballou Press, New York, p. 51. 6 Ibid, pp. 101–108.

16 Wright, C 2009, p. 22.

27 Wyndham, H 1955, p. 153.

7 Robertson, PS 1952, Revolutions of 1848: A Social History, Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 180; Wright, C 2009, ‘A Lover and a Fighter: The Trouble with Lola Montez’, Overlander, no. 195, p. 22.

17 ‘A Miner’s Life: Living on the Goldfields’, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney. Viewed December 2015. <http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/ stories/miners-life-living-goldfields>

28 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

18 Wyndham 1935, p. 144.

9 Trowbridge, WHR 1910, Seven Splendid Sinners, T Fisher Unwin, London, 325. ; Marshall, D 1970, Germany: A Modern History, University of Michigan Press, Michigan, p. 105.

19 Letter to R.H. Horne, September 1855, published in Wyndham 1955, p. 219.

10 Burr, C 1858, Lectures of Lola Montez, Countess of Landsfield, including her Autobiography, Rudd and Carlton, New York, p. 4.

21 Hundley, P and Wade J 2007, p. 10.

11 Robinson 1952, p. 180. 12 Wyndham 1935, p. 163. ; Seymore 1996, p. 116. 13 24th November 1849, ‘Charge of bigamy against Lola Montez’, Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, Hobart. 14 Seymore 1996, p. 322 15 10th December 1847, ‘Metropolitan gossip’, Australian, Sydney.

20 Hundley, P and Wade J 2007, ‘Gold Rush Drama, On Stage and Off’, Australiana, vol. 29, p. 10.

Lola Montez, 1860, Adam Salomon, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Postcard from the ‘From today painting is dead’ exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, May 1972, Arts Council of Great Britain. COLLECTION Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka

22 Young, L 2012, ‘Subversive Jewellery Challenges to conservative power from the Victorian goldfields’, reCollections, vol 7. 23 Ibid. 24 Ibid. 25 Hundley P and Wade J 2007, p. 10. 26 ‘The Battle of Ballarat from Melbourne Punch’, The Courier, Hobart.

29 Ibid. 30 Anderson, M 2001, ‘Mrs Charles Clay, Lola Montez and Poll the Grogseller: Glimpses of women on the Early Victorian Goldfields’, Gold: Forgotten Histories and Lost Objects of Australia, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, p. 235. 31 Kelly, William in Wyndham, H 1955. p. 227. 32 Hundley, P and Wade J 2007, p. 10. 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid. 35 Burr, C 1858, p. 4. 36 Gilmore, J 2010, ‘You Beauty’, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. Viewed December 2015. http:// www.portrait.gov.au/magazines/37/you-beauty 37 Wyndham, H 1995, p. 7. 38 Montez, L 1858, The Arts of Beauty, or Secrets of a Lady’s Toilet, with Hints to Gentlemen on the Art of Fascinating, Dick & Fitzgerald, New York, ix.

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South Austr alian fields and finds

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Cash Brown

The first recognised find in South Australia was at Castambul in January 1846, by the captain of the Montacute Copper Mine. It became the first goldmine worked in Australia. Some of the gold was apparently made into a brooch sent to Queen Victoria and gold samples were displayed at the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in 1851. The mine was short-lived and many men left for the Californian fields in 1849. At the same time, there was an influx of migrants from the Prussian empire.

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

In 1851 when gold was found in Victoria, newspapers reported “Great undivided successes occurring side by side with very numerous cases of ill fortune, amounting to ruin”. There were also advertisements for passage on ships sailing to Victoria, washing sieves, water pails, cooking kettles, tents, shirts, jerseys, blankets and kiln-dried biscuits that helped spur the rush for gold. The subsequent impact on South Australia’s social and economic climate was vast. Men walked off farms and there were too few to harvest the crops and care for livestock. Crews deserted ships, shopkeepers and merchants closed their doors and women and children were left to fend for themselves. The man drain meant that Government employees were dismissed, the police force was reduced, newspapers closed and the cost of local labour dramatically rose. Copper mines in Kapunda and Burra lost a number of their workers. Kapunda kept only four men maintaining the pumps to prevent the mine from flooding while the Burra mine workforce fell from 1,000 to 100. By March 1852 it was claimed that one-

third of the males in South Australia had left for Victoria, and naturally, not all were successful, or responsible. The Destitute Relief Board announced in October 1851 that it would not maintain wives and families of men who had left for the diggings. But in 1852 they moderated their attitude, as they could not enforce the Maintenance Act outside the colony of South Australia. To make matters worse, the gold-seeking Argonauts spent between £10–£12 each to purchase supplies and mining equipment. They would also have to pay licence fees once at the diggings. As a result, within a few months, South Australia was in financial trouble. The supply of currency was depleted, and returning miners could not sell their gold or use it to buy goods in shops. After lobbying by the public, and a request from the manager of the Bank of South Australia, the Bullion Act was passed in January 1852. This allowed gold to be assayed by the government, reducing it to stamped ingots denoting weight and quality. These could then be received by banks at a set price and used as legal tender. An Assay Office was set up in Adelaide in February and the price set at £3/11/– per ounce, higher than the Melbourne price of £2/15/– per ounce. This encouraged the miners in Victoria to bring and send home their gold. But that required some initiative and a mounted police escort was the solution. There was no single gold escort route. The track wound its way across the country according to season and weather. The first escort was met with great enthusiasm by the diggers in Ballarat. However, by 1853 the quantity of gold being sent to Adelaide dropped even though the courier charge had been reduced. This was a reflection of the

depletion of alluvial gold resources and high expenses for diggers. The last police escort was in December 1853. Meanwhile, enterprising South Australian merchants and farmers benefited by sending their goods, including foodstuffs and prefabricated wooden huts, to the Victorian goldfields. For five years South Australia was an important supplier to the Victorian market.

LEFT Pocket watch, key marked A.L Brunkhorst, Adelaide, watch marked Muret, Geneve, inside watch marked Steiner, Adelaide Swivel marked DH & Co. DATE c. 1880 This stunning pocket watch demonstrates collaboration between Steiner and Brunkhorst, who later took over the business. The Swiss imported watch component shows a demand for high-quality luxury goods. Private Collection RIGHT Photograph of an unknown lady, Glenelg, South Australia DATE c. 1880 Note the the jewel in her hair, earrings and brooch. Image courtesy Ballarat Historical Society and Gold Museum, Ballarat.

Some men did take the opportunity to avoid their responsibilities, often leaving their wives and families destitute. Many labourers returned to take up land in the mid and late 1850s as a result of successful goldfields visits. Sales of Crown land in South Australia rose to £98,000 in 1852, £291,000 in 1853 and £383,000 in 1854. Others took up shops, hotels and other businesses. The colony was in social and economic recovery and this led to the production of some of Australia’s most spectacular colonial gold jewellery. While Charles Firnhaber was already a fixture in the colony and producing work of a very high standard (he was one of the rare few pre-goldrush jewellers to voluntarily settle in Australia), German immigrants Steiner and Wendt settled in Adelaide and have left their legacies in world-class jewellery design and manufacture using Australian gold.

These European jewellers and countless others brought with them designs, traditions and skills from the continent, and rapidly incorporated Australian natural materials and motifs into their work. The following selection of pieces exemplifies the inventiveness and excellence of these expatriate jewellers and their influence on international trends. 

Best, M (ed) 1986, A Lost Glitter: Letters between South Australia and the Western Australian Goldfields 1895–97, Wakefield Press, Netley. Blake, L 1978, Gold Escorts in Australia, Rigby, Adelaide. Brown, H 1982, Record of the mines of South Australia, Government Printer, Adelaide, ed 11. Dickey, B 1986, Rations, Residence, Resources. A History of Social Welfare in South Australia since 1836, Wakefield Press, Netley. Hodder, E 1893. The history of South Australia from its foundation to the year of its jubilee, Sampson Low, Marston & Company, London. Leadbeater, M 2015, ‘Gold, South Australia’s Early Days’, South Australian History, < www.familyhistorysa>. Neighbour, A 1967. Evidence of the old gold track Ballarat to Adelaide through portion of the 90 Mile Desert near Cookes Plains during the years 1906–13.

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South Australia boasted a few small mines dotted across the landscape during the gold rush eras, but despite having an earlier rush, the majority of the colony’s subsequent gold came from the Victorian goldfields.

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MAKER JM Wendt | Adelaide LENT BY Trevor Kennedy PHOTO John McRae

Gold and malachite brooch It is rare to find pieces with secure provenance, and specific dates of manufacture. This brooch is stamped JMW and is recorded as being a gift:

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

A birthday present by Balmanno to his dearly beloved wife Elizabeth Green, also a token of love and affection in appreciation of his success in life during 12 years and to thank her for this. Bought in Adelaide, Australia, March 24, 1872. Malachite is a dark green to blackish copper carbonate hydroxide mineral which is often banded. It is found in Burra, north of Adelaide, where the copper mines were worked.

DATE c. 1875 MAKER Henry J Steiner | Adelaide LENT BY Anne Schofield Antiques IMAGE courtesy Mossgreen Auctions

Austr alian gold locket Marked H ST, 18 C for Henry Steiner, this 18 carat gold brooch is inscribed on the front TJP. It is unknown what, or who these initials stand for, but undoubtedly the original owner would have held it dear, and enclosed a photograph in the locket. Born in Germany, Henry Steiner arrived in Adelaide in 1858 and opened for business in Rundle Street shortly thereafter. He was one of Adelaide’s most prolific jewellers, receiving the patronage of governors. He exhibited his work in the Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition in 1866–67, the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1878, the Sydney International Exhibition in 1879, the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876 and the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880–81. In 1882, Steiner was awarded a major commission for the mayoral chains of the Corporation of Adelaide, consisting of 25 links. He sold the business in 1884 to one of his gifted employees, August L. Brunkhorst. After a brief trip back to Germany, he returned to Adelaide and traded again from 1887–89 before returning permanently to his homeland where he died in 1914.

Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian Jewellery, 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain, pp. 239–242.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

DATE 1872

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MAKER JM Wendt (attributed to) | Adelaide

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

LENT BY Trevor Hancock

Malachite ear pendants This pair of ear pendants appear to have been crafted in the workshop of South Australian jeweller Joachim Matthias Wendt. The crafting of the vine leaves and tendrils and the modelling of bunches of grapes are identical to the ascribed brooch and ear pendants by Wendt in Schofield & Fahy (1991, p. 57). These remarkable pendants show the trouble taken to match the malachite patterns left and right to provide visual harmony. Examples of his work are held by the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, the Art Gallery of South Australia, Tamworth Regional Gallery and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney.

Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian Jewellery, 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain, p. 57

DATE c. 1860 MAKER Ernest Leviny (attributed to) | Castlemaine, Victoria LENT BY the National Gallery of Victoria | Melbourne BEQUEST OF Mrs D. V. G. Scouler, 1967

Br acelet with gold, garnet and diamonds This magnificent, and exceedingly rare, example of the work of Ernest Leviny is a highly original gold bracelet set with garnet and diamonds. Leviny was born at Georgenberg, Hungary, in 1818 and trained as a silversmith and jeweller in Budapest. He lived and worked in Paris from 1843 to 1846, then moved to London, where he operated a manufacturing jewellers and goldsmith business between 1846 and 1852. The gold rushes attracted Leviny to travel to the Victorian goldfields to try his luck. Arriving at Port Phillip, Melbourne, in early 1853, he went directly to the rich alluvial goldfields of Forest Creek, and the bustling new township of Castlemaine. His efforts at gold seeking were thwarted by bad luck after the desertion of his team. Instead, he established a successful watchmaking and jewellery business in the Market Square. By 1863 he was able to retire from business and purchase Delhi Villa, which he renamed Buda (short for Budapest). Here Leviny also created one of the most important large suburban 19th century gardens surviving in Victoria. This home is now the Buda Historic Home and Garden, which is open to the public as a house museum. Many of his drawings, tools and his gem box have been generously loaned by Buda Historic Home and Garden to augment the exhibition.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

DATE c. 1860

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MAKER possibly Alfred Lorking | Sydney

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

Vine and pearl brooch Australian seed pearls were discovered in Shark Bay, Western Australia, in 1851. Shark Bay shells yielded mostly small pearls, or a collection of seed pearls. With their delicate appearance, seed pearls were frequently set in ladies’ jewellery, often alongside garnets or opals. Jeweller Alfred Lorking crafted particularly lavish seed pearl pieces featuring a border of intricate gold grape-vine leaves in two tones of gold, wrapped around a central cluster of seed pearls fashioned into a bunch of grapes. These miniature pearls were often used to fashion young ladies jewellery, with their size speaking of delicacy and youth. Examples of a very similar piece in the British Museum is described as ‘Bloomed and chased two-colour gold brooch set with pearls in the form of a fruiting vine’ and dated 1840–60 and made in England,

DATE mid – late 19C MAKER unknown | Australia

British Isles or Europe. Text from the Catalogue of the Hull Grundy Gift (Gere et al 1984) no. 689 reads: ‘Brooches of this type were shown at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, as a new and ingenius [sic] brooch by Messrs Benson of 63 Cornhill’ Art Journal Illustrated Catalogue, p. 95.

LENT BY Trevor Kennedy PHOTO John McRae

Gold and polished quartz brooch This peculiar brooch has no markings, but uses a high grade of gold in strange serrated leaf and trumpet flower shapes. It displays a level of inventiveness in showcasing gold-bearing quartz in a unique composition.

Alfred Lorking, who was active in Sydney from 1853 to 1859, had clearly been influenced by the British design, although as this piece is unmarked it is difficult to tell if it was made by Lorking or is an imported piece.

Appleton, R 1958, The Australian Encyclopaedia, Volume 7, Michigan State University Press, Michigan, pp. 40–44. Czernis-Ryl, E, 2011, Brilliant, Australian Gold and silver, Powerhouse Publishing, Ultimo. Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian Jewellery, 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain, p. 219.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

DATE c. 1853–59?

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MAKER Denis Bros (attributed to) | Melbourne LENT BY Anne Schofield Antiques

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

PHOTO courtesy Anne Schofield Antiques

Foliate gold and quartz brooch Australian gold brooch with central gold-bearing quartz specimen within a framework of leaves and branches. A stunning example of incorporating European fashions with a desire for showing the spoils of gold seeking in a raw gold loaded piece of quartz. It was perhaps fashioned for a lucky digger’s wife or sweetheart from the prestigious firm Denis Bros of Melbourne. The firm Denis Bros was founded by Sylla Denis, who arrived in Melbourne from France in 1853. After trying his luck in the Ballarat goldfields, he commenced business as a jeweller in 1857 and was joined by his brother Victor in 1861 and later by his nephew Gustave Lachal. They received a First Order of Merit for their gold and silver jewellery at the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880–81. The brothers died in 1889, Gustave retired and the business was continued by Sylla’s son Fernandez until 1910.

DATE c. 1870 MAKER unknown | Australia LENT BY Trevor Kennedy PHOTO John McRae

Operculum brooch Operculum is the name given to the covering or lid molluscs use to close their shells. The shiny, colourful operculum of many small sea snails, in particular the Turbo snail found off the north coast of Queensland, was valued by Victorian jewellers and likened to gems. With a texture similar to a stone, and with great variation in colour, operculum was set in bracelets, brooches and earrings, and used for sleeve links and buttons. When polished, the shells resembled cats’ eyes and were particularly popular in jewellery during the 1860s. Superstition and occultism were popular among all classes, most especially during the latter half of the 19th century and jewellery was created to reflect such social trends. Their slightly creepy beauty was revered for warding off the evil eye by superstitious Victorians. The ‘many coloured cats eye operculum’ was noted for its ‘frequently very pretty appearance’. In 1879 F. Allerding & Son displayed a bracelet of operculum ‘polished and strung together in numbers … as charming a bracelet as need clasp a lady’s wrist’ at the International Exhibition in Sydney, 1879. Examples of this maker’s operculum pieces can be found in the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney. Western Australian operculum is more oval shaped and has a paler hue and a shinier surface. Many are a delicate pale pink.

Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian Jewellery, 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain, p. 143.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

DATE c. 1860

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MAKER unknown | Australia

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

Quandong cr avat pin with gold snake Quandongs, popularly known in the 19th century as the ‘native cherry’, began to be used in Australian jewellery around the 1860s. The hard seed or nut of the red fruit was able to be polished, carved or set in gold or silver, and had a unique texture that was likened to timber. Indigenous Australians had long utilised the seeds in jewellery, a practice that was soon adopted by colonial settlers.

DATE c. 1870 MAKER unknown | Australia LENT BY Trevor Kennedy PHOTO John McRae

Gold oval foliate brooch set with cowrie shell There is a tiny golden dove nestled in the foliage surrounding this polished cowrie shell, indicating reverence among the ubiquitous vine leaves and tendrils. Cowries, the most spectacular of gastropods captivated Victorian jewellers for their stunning pattern, colour range and glossy polish. Western and southern Australian species of cowries were some of the most prized.

Native to mainland Australia, quandongs were yet another symbol of Australiana enthusiastically adapted by colonial jewellers and jewellery wearers. As with other indigenous materials such as the supple jack seed, quandongs were utilised by local jewellers seeking to experiment with native resources. From the 1860s onwards, quandong earrings, brooches, bracelets, necklaces and lockets were exhibited colonial exhibitions in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. The seeds, intricately set in finely wrought gold or silver, attracted considerable attention. An article reviewing the 1875 Melbourne Exhibition paid homage to the qualities of the quandong jewellery by Whitney, Chambers & Co., declaring the ‘quandong or native cherry gives the artisan scope for his skill’.

‘Melbourne Exhibition’, The Age, Friday September 4, 1875, p. 3. Wade, J 2000, ‘Australian Jewellery’, Gold and Civilisation, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, p. 103.

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DATE c. 1870

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MAKER unknown | Shark Bay, Western Australia

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

Blister pearl brooch In 1851 the first Australian pearls were discovered in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Soon after, commercial pearling began for the ‘Oriental’ or ‘golden’ pearls found there, but the industry soon folded. At Nickol Bay in the Pilbara, decorative pearl shells used by local Aboriginal people were noticed by European explorers, and an industry was established by the mid 1860s where pastoral workers would collect shells from the shallow waters, wading as the tide receded. Naturally overfishing resulted in deeper waters for harvest, and skin diving began in 1868. Many of the Aboriginal people employed to dive succumbed to terrible diseases, while others were abducted and forced to work for greedy pearlers. That year, the first Australian pearls began to appear in the local market. The discovery of pearls off the coast of Queensland in 1868 increased Australia’s pearl production and use in jewellery in other colonies, and locally.

DATE c. 1900 RETAILER Dawsons | Perth

Broome, which was founded in 1883 on Roebuck Bay, is probably the most famous pearling town in the world, where the Pinctada maxima, the largest pearl shells in the world, are found. The shells of pearls were also utilised in jewellery such as brooches, lockets and decorative buttons; by the 1890s, Western Australian and Torres Strait pearl stations supplied a large portion of the world’s pearl shell demand. ‘Native pearls’ were popularly used by local jewellers for armlets, rings and brooches. The shell in this brooch appears to be from the species Pinctada albina from the Shark Bay area, as it is smaller and more yellowish in colouration than Broome examples of pearl shell. Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian Jewellery, 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain, p. 143–145. Dorothy Erickson, email corespondence, 2016.

Private Collection

Jewel beetle necklace Made with the wings of native Western Australian jewel beetles set in gold, these remarkable survivors from the late 19th century provide a fascinating glimpse into the Victorian psyche. The natural world was wondrous, and these exotic beetles hark back to the use of scarab beetles in Egyptian adornment. Egyptology and the ubiquitous symbols from ancient Egypt were another great source of fascination for Victorians. Jewel beetle jewellery is quite fragile. The wings are brittle and can easily be damaged, making these little survivors a curious rarity. The box for the necklace is possibly original, and is accompanied in the exhibition by a pair of earrings. The set could have been made by Dawsons, which was an international firm headquartered in London and with branches in Perth and Sydney. They also comissioned pieces from local jewellers, often with imported stones.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

DATE c. 1895

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MAKER Edward Fischer | Geelong

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

Oval polished marble brooch Marble found in extensive deposits around Buchan in the East Gippsland region of Victoria was prized for some of the spectacular architectural landmarks in Marvellous Melbourne. It also made for curious personal ornamentation. Once polished, the earthy colours and natural patterning precipitated economical but striking designs reflecting the very essence of the Australian landscape. Edward Fischer was born in Vienna and arrived in Geelong by at least 1857 before setting up his business there in 1858. Fischer had many prestigious commissions including the spectacular Geelong Gold Cup racing cups from 1879 and 1880, which are held in the National Gallery of Victoria’s collection. These and several other examples of his work including a cowrie shell brooch and an arrow brooch, the latter of which is also from

the National Gallery of Victoria collection, are included in this exhibition. Much of his work was made with Ballarat gold, which was the closest productive field and linked by rail after 1862. Fisher sold his Geelong business in 1891 and by 1895 had set up in Collins Street, Melbourne, with his son Harry. For a glimpse into the Geelong shop, read “A Peep into a working jeweller’s shop” from the Geelong Advertiser, 8 March 1876. You can find it on TROVE, or transcribed in pages 183–184 in Schofield and Fahy, 1991.

Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian Jewellery, 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain.

DATE c. 1875 MAKER Lamborn & Wagner | Melbourne Private Collection

Citrine botanical brooch This stunning botanical brooch has flowers similar to tea trees and is set with a clear orange citrine. This stunning brooch is adorned with five petaled flowers of the family Myrtaceae (myrtle), of which tea tree, (genus Leptospermum) is a member. It is set with a clear orange citrine possibly from the Ovens Valley in Victoria. Citrine is citrus-coloured quartz found across Australia, which provided jewellers and buyers with an alternative to the more expensive, imported topaz. Citrine specimens were often quite large and afforded themselves to the extravagant pieces of jewellery favoured in the mid to late 19th century. Queen Victoria took a special liking to the stone, making it a popular gem in the colonies. Small loops on the bottom of the back of this brooch indicate it may have once had chains or other suspended ornamentation. It also has a loop to facilitate wearing as a pendant.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

DATE c. 1870

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MAKER unknown | Australia Private Collection

Amethyst brooch with gold vine leaves and gr apes

MAKER Thomas Scanlan | Perth Private Collection

A large amethyst surrounded by garnets applied to an earlier vine leaves brooch. The catch and pin are also a later addition and the reworking is of excellent quality. Whatever the original centre, the amethyst and garnet replacement is a great effect, and perhaps the wearer was mindful of the Greek word amethustos meaning ‘not drunken’.

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

DATE 1893–1912

Amethyst is a light, medium or dark purple form of quartz found in veins common in Australia. The purple colour is due to iron impurities present when the crystal was formed. It is commonly found alongside citrine, the only difference between the two stones is the difference in temperature and pressure when they were being formed, or when heat treated. Heat-treated citrine becomes amethyst.

Shark tooth fob chain Stamped 9 carat on the bar, this chain would have originally been used as a fob chain but was remodelled as a necklace, with an added sharks’ tooth. Perhaps a symbol of toughness and masculinity, sharks’ teeth appear to have been popular in the late 19th century on fobs as well as necklaces. This tooth has characteristics typical of that of a great white shark.

Erickson, D 2010, Australiana, vol 10, Number 307, pp. 91–06.

Dorothy Erickson pers. comm. 2016.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

DATE c. 1870 | possibly modified early 20C

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Touched by Gold: ‘Bounty Lass’ Phoebe Morgan and her legacy

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Dr Dorothy Erickson

OPPOSITE Rica Wheeler, Phoebe’s youngest daughter, as a teenager, Melbourne 1888. IMAGE courtesy Dorothy Erickson

In 1853 a seventeen-year-old Welsh girl, Phoebe Louisa Morgan, found herself orphaned in London when her parents, exiles from the Snowdonia area, died in a cholera epidemic in the borough of Southwark. Having seen and read about Australia at the Great Exhibition in London and after reading about the excitement of the gold rushes in the newspapers of the day, she sailed on the barque Mooltan, arriving in Victoria in August 1853. Phoebe went into service as a ladies’ maid for a few months with Mr Gladstone of Geelong but the pretty and vivacious teenager, with her Welsh colouring and grandmother’s name, soon married cabinetmaker John Clarke. Together they journeyed to the diggings at Sailor’s Gully near Sandhurst (Bendigo), where she set up in business catering for miners from her tent (Fig. 1). A lantern was hung and a table was constructed of boxes on which she placed their tin dishes, pots, pannikins, knives, forks and spoons in regimented order. A camp oven and kettle were set up on a tripod over the campfire. Cords were stretched on which to hang garments, and the mining equipment placed near the front of the tent. Indulged by her husband, the thrifty lass bought whole sides of lamb and cadged offal and muttonheads which, with the addition of an onion or two made tasty dishes, stews and broths that miners paid for with nuggets. A kerchief on a pole beside the tent indicated she had leftover food for sale. Each night Phoebe would whitewash the logs she used for seats in her informal dining area, sweep the ground and place the nuggets under one of the stumps. No one guessed this was her hidden safe.

Tragically, it was here that her eldest child drowned in a water hole, and in 1856 the family moved on to Heathcote, where a son was born. At age twenty-three, Phoebe’s husband died of enteritis. Widowed and a single mother, Phoebe set up her tent and store and again served meals to hungry diggers. She was not without admirers. Before long she married a Quaker, Frederick Wheeler, who was a Londoner from fashionable Marylebone. Frederick came to the country lured by gold and had set up as a storekeeper in Redcastle, near Heathcote. He was attracted to the lively young widow with gentrified manners. That he was a Quaker was to cause problems later on; the children of Quakers who married ‘out’ were considered to be illegitimate by the Society of Friends, though legitimate by the State. A son, Herbert, was born to the new couple in 1861, before tragedy struck again a few months later when his halfbrother died from meningitis. In an attempt to console her, Frederick gave Phoebe a large gold foliate brooch similar to the one in Fig. 2. He then moved the family to Myer’s Flat, near Sandhurst (now Bendigo), which had become a thriving town. The family continued to move to follow the gold rushes, and were soon in Eaglehawk, where Phoebe ran their large home as a boarding house. Four more children were born, but one, Sarah May, tragically died of dysentery. After the birth of their youngest daughter Frederica Georgina Elizabeth, Phoebe and Frederick decided to rent the two-storey Prince of Wales Hotel in Sandhurst. With a number of servants, life was much more comfortable. This good fortune was not to last.

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

HER GREAT GREAT GRANDDAUGHTER

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Upon recovery, Phoebe continued to manage the City of Sandhurst Hotel; a job with no shortage of challenges.

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

New laws were enacted in England in regard to Quaker marriages. The couple thought it best to part before they were mired in laws soon to be enacted in Victoria and declared herself a widow to avoid embarrassment. She planned to run a Temperance Hotel with the help of her older girls. “Look before you leap” and “a bird in the hand is worth two in a bush” were two of Phoebe’s sayings her daughters recalled.

FIG. 1 Phoebe’s tent may well have looked like this but she did not sell liquor. ST Gill ‘Sly grog shanty on the road to Bendigo 1852’. State Library Victoria

Sadly the new-born died. Phoebe then moved to live in prominent businessman William Clarke’s Sandhurst home as a wet nurse to his young his son Clive. In 1874 Clive was weaned and the family left the gold fields to re-establish themselves in Echuca, on the Murray River in Victoria’s north. At the time Echuca was the fastest-growing town in Victoria and Phoebe thought it would have many potential customers for her proposed new restaurant.

Phoebe started by managing The Red Gum Home at McGrowther’s Mill, which catered meals for the mill workers. She then bought a mill owner’s 12-room house in East Echuca and opened the profitable Phoenix Hotel with a son-in-law as the listed licensee. Mixing with the gentry, Phoebe married again, this time to Peter Hamling, the owner of a transport business. Unfortunately, as it would later become apparent, this decision was unwise as his intentions were far from clear. After the marriage, Phoebe decided to lease the hotel, and was pleased to note the Married Women’s Act of 1878 allowed her control of her own earnings. She advertised a change of address and business, leaving the Phoenix Hotel, and instead leased a two-storey building with stables and cottage under the name ‘City of Sandhurst Hotel’. It was here in 1879 that she was poisoned.

One evening in 1880, the outlawed Kelly gang arrived at the hotel and asked for food and lodging. Phoebe accepted, with her daughters locked safely upstairs. The following morning after serving breakfast they found a sovereign under each of the gang member’s plates. It was a story they would tell their grandchildren. When the lease of the City of Sandhurst Hotel expired, Phoebe returned to the Phoenix Hotel, although it was no longer as profitable.

LEFT FIG. 2 This Victorian goldfields brooch made in the 1850s is similar to the brooch Frederick Wheeler gave to his wife Phoebe. Private Collection RIGHT FIG.3 The brooch made by Mazzuccelli’s using part of Phoebe’s brooch. IMAGE courtesy Dorothy Erickson

In 1885, with her youngest two children in tow, she moved to Melbourne, and purchased land at Werribee as an investment. When her youngest and tomboyish daughter Frederica (also known as Rica) married her employer in 1888, Phoebe decided to accept some work in Alexander. Phoebe travelled there by hansom cab: a journey that was to end with tragedy. The drunken driver lost control of his horse on the hilly road, collided with a tree and overturned the cab. Phoebe was mortally wounded.

Broken in the accident, Phoebe’s brooch was divided into four pieces – one for each daughter. The youngest, Frederica Georgina Elizabeth Wheeler (named after Phoebe’s best-loved husband) had spent a lot of time with her mother, and knew her stories well. These she passed on to her own granddaughter Rica Erickson, who committed them to print in The Misfortunes of Phoebe. Phoebe herself had written her own life story in an old exercise book, however no one seems to have it now. Rica was also married and widowed at a young age. Like her mother, Rica was also resourceful. Once widowed, Rica trained as a midwife to support her children then followed the lure of gold to the goldfields of Western Australia in 1906 to join her sister. She then set up her shingle in Boulder City and became the local legend known as Nurse Cooke. It was here Rica had her quarter of her mother Phoebe’s brooch made by local jewellers Mazzuccelli into a new jewel. The style was that of the time, a light double bar brooch similar to many made on the Western Australian goldfields illustrated in Fig. 3. Her mother Phoebe’s brooch, on the contrary, had been a large bulla style of brooch worn high at the throat. It was typical of the goldfields brooches made during the NSW and Victorian gold rushes in the 1850s–60s when great ‘bulla’ brooches were the fashion.

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Newspapers reported she ‘swallowed an ounce of sugar of lead, dissolved in water, which she mistook for Epsom salts’, leaving her in a ‘very dangerous condition’. Family lore suggests that her husband poisoned her in order to gain control of her properties; something he had apparently been attempting to do for some time. His own children by an earlier marriage rallied round Phoebe and Peter Hamling left town in disgrace.

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Western Australian goldfields jewellery, some forty years after Phoebe’s gift from Frederick demonstrate much simpler designs. Fashion and pragmatism played its part too. In Western Australian gold fields jewellery was much lighter than that of the earlier east coast fashions.

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Mourning and memory: Photogr aphic brooches and lockets

The maker, Matthew Ernest Mazzuccelli, had begun an apprenticeship with Benjamin Cohen in Melbourne and completed it in Stawell, Victoria, where his father, a Swiss, was living having arrived in Victoria as an engineer in the mining industry. When Matthew’s apprenticeship finished, his family travelled west to repair family fortunes lost in the Victorian bank crashes of the 1890s. The firm began as Mazzucchelli & Downes in Boulder City, Frederica Cooke sought out Mazzucchelli and had the very sentimental memento of her mother incorporated into a new brooch typical of the period.

Western Australian goldfields jewellery was popular in the Aesthetic period, where sporting jewellery, name brooches, bar brooches and lace pins were fashionable. The hot Westralian climate was also a factor in jewellery design. Where Victoria has a climate more akin to southern England or France, Perth, capital of Western Australia, has a Mediterranean / Californian climate while Boulder and other Western Australian goldfields were in the dry and dusty desert interior more suited to light cotton clothing for much of the year. This affected jewellery fashion, as the wearer’s ability to support heavier brooches in this climate was thwarted by fabric, and trends of the late Victorian era meant that over-the-top big gold pieces were no longer de rigueur.

FIG. 4 Frederica (Rica) Cooke wearing her brooch. IMAGE courtesy Dorothy Erickson

Distinctive work was made utilizing swans or mining implements combined with nuggets or an arch spelling out the name of the mine, town or occasion. Rica’s brooch was however a little different. It had a recycled element of material, historical and sentimental importance.

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Cash Brown In the Victorian era brooches and lockets holding photographs, and sometimes locks of hair were a symbol of status, with size and material of construction sure indicators of wealth.

Only three known pieces are marked with ‘M&D’ of the firm Mazzucchelli & Downes. One is a fifteen-carat gold brooch presented to Nurse Cooke in 1909 in recognition of her professional efforts. It is in the form of a Goldfields’ Infantry Regiment badge. On the verso is inscribed ‘To Nurse Cooke from members of E company with heartfelt thanks 30/9/09’. Mazzucchelli also made Nurse Cooke a wedding ring to a new husband.

Given the scarcity of precious stones in Australia the principal material of construction, money permitting, was gold. The higher the grade and amount of gold, the more impressive, giving more status to the wearer. Many of these brooches and pendants could have been highly sentimental portrayals of loved ones not lost. It is difficult to tell with any certainty whether these jewels are memorials to the living or the dead.

The bar-brooch incorporating the treasured fragment of Ricas’s mother’s brooch was constructed of hollow tube terminated with gallery-strip and scrolls. The central section features, in place of the usual nugget, the torn leaves of the brooch originally made on the Sandhurst field during the Victorian gold rushes as a present from Frederick Wheeler to Phoebe Morgan. Nurse Cooke was a familiar figure wearing her pinstripe hospital-blue uniform with long sleeves and floor length hem, carrying her nursing bag as she walked briskly on her rounds. She often wore the brooch at her neck (Fig. 4). When her daughters married she delivered their children, and claimed to have delivered over 1,000 babies and never lost a mother or a full-term child. She retired at seventy-three. Her story is told in Reflections: Profiles of 150 Women who helped make Western Australian History, edited by Daphne Popham. With a halo of white curls and a wicked twinkle in her eye she entertained her adoring great grandchildren with sometimes risqué tales of her and her mother’s life on the Victorian goldfields. The brooch meanwhile was, passed on to be treasured by other generations. 

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Popular symbols included doves for the Holy Spirit, love and fidelity, grape vines, tendrils and bunches representing the Christian faith, arrows and hearts for love and love’s wounds, ferns in mourning can mean sincerity, buckles for loyalty, strength and protection, ivy for fidelity or wedded love and oak leaves for strength. Victorians were obsessed with the language tied to love tokens as forms of messages. This is in addition to the fascination with botanical specimens and exotic fauna. This type of symbolism provides a stark contrast to the literal implements of trade in the Goldfields pieces. Those with Australian native flora and fauna may therefore be for the less reverent, or perhaps as gifts bearing resemblances of living loved ones. Rotating gold photographic brooch with portrait of an unknown gentleman DATE c. 1870 MAKER unknown | Australia Private Collection

In most cases, photographs in brooches were printed on card, then sized or varnished and enclosed in the revolving centre of the brooch/locket. The older methods of photography in their original golden time capsules are significant also due to scarcity.

The popularity of the photographic locket can be seen on the inside cover of this catalogue, with at least six of the women pictured sporting the fashion for closed pieces, like the Steiner locket pictured on page 62.

Dageurrotypes An expensive and rare form of image was the daguerreotype. This type of image was devised by the Frenchman L. Daguerre in the first half on the 19th century. The process employs an iodine-sensitised silvered plate and mercury vapour. It was an expensive operation and examples are eagerly sought by collectors. To have a daguerreotype crafted to fit an Australian colonial brooch is remarkable and very rare. The general public had become used to their photographic portraits being taken using a daguerreotype process which were displayed in a small glass fronted case.

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To compete with this trade a special kind of collodion process known as the ambrotype was introduced. In 1851 Frederick Scott Archer announced the discovery of a new photographic process that could adhere to glass. This was a major breakthrough in the story of photography for the process made clear highly detailed negatives form which multiple copies could be made. This was essentially the same as other collodion negatives except that once the exposure had been taken the emulsion on the glass was bleached to whiten it. When this bleached negative was placed in a case against a black background it formed a positive image which bore a remarkable resemblance to the daguerreotype except that it had the added advantage of not being highly reflective. Australia followed rather than set photographic trends but in the 1850s, the massive boom caused by the discovery of gold ensured it was very quick to take up new processes like the ambrotype. Over the 1850s the ambrotype replaced the daguerreotype as the preferred method of taking portraits but even in the late 1850s daguerreotypes were still being made for more conservative customers.

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Ambrotypes Australian brooches with this type of photograph, especially those which are hand coloured, are significant because according to Barker (2009) there are few surviving links to Australia. While millions of ambrotype photographs were produced around the world and many thousands in Australia, remarkably few have survived that can be linked to Australian society during the 1850s and 1860s. Long exposures with these types of photography account for the blurriness despite the fact that sitters were often strapped into contraptions to keep them still, and the strange expressions are from keeping their eyes open for long periods!

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The Victorians were also fond of post mortem portraits, memento mori in the truest sense. Deceased adults were often propped in the same contraptions as the living in order to pose them.

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It is particularly interesting that as children cannot be still for the 20 seconds or so required for a clean image, it can be assumed that many ambrotypes and dageurrotypes with staged poses of children and babies sleeping are post mortem. There is a beautiful example of a hand coloured dageurrotype with an exquisite gold frame in original box from 1862 on the last page of this book. It was initially presumed to be of a recently deceased child, so peaceful and beautiful. The inscription in the lid of the case reads Horace Watson 1862, and a note inside indicates it came from Sandy Bay in Tasmania. Further research revealed Horace Watson was born in Bendigo in 1862, and died in Sandy Bay on 12 April 1930. I would like to speculate that the frame is made from Bendigo gold, and that the photograph was taken of the sleeping child just before his family migrated to Tasmania in 1886. Although it is not wearable, I could not leave it out of the exhibition. 

REFERENCES Barker, G 2009, Curatorial, Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. Cato, J 1979, The Story of the Camera in Australia, Third Edition, Institute of Australian Photography, Hong Kong. Davies, A and Stanbury, P 1985, The Mechanical Eye in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.

DATE c. 1840s–55 MAKER unknown | England LENT BY National Gallery of Victoria | Melbourne GIFT OF Margaret Clarke, 1994

Gold brooch (Elizabeth Wilson) This daguerreotype, with hand colouring behind glass is mounted on a gold locket brooch containing human hair. It is a delightful example an imported piece which was likely to have preceded the gold rushes here and worn in remembrance of a loved one ‘back home’. Importing gold for local manufacture was an expensive business, but after the rushes in Australia, even in mourning, one could show off.

Frizot, M 1998, A New History of Photography, Amilcare Pizzi, Milan. Gernsheim, A and Gernsheim, H 1965, A Concise History of Photography, Thames and Hudson, London. Peters, H 2015, ‘Colonial Australian Sentimental Jewels’, Art of Mourning, <artofmourning.com>.

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MAKER unknown | Australia Private Collection PHOTO Andrew Simpson

Gold locket brooch with ambrotype 18 carat gold locket brooch with foliate border containing a hand coloured, varnished, ambrotype portrait of a man holding a large piece of gold bearing quartz and wearing colonial gold rings. The maker of this piece and the identity of the sitter are unknown.

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Czernis-Ryl, E 2011, Australian Gold and Silver, 1851–1951, Powerhouse Publishing, p.16. Czernis-Ryl, E, 1995 Australian Gold and Silver, 1851–1901, Powerhouse Publishing, p.5.

DATE c. 1860 MAKER Edward Schafer | Melbourne

Gold locket brooch with photogr aph of a lady

LENT BY Trevor Kennedy PHOTO John McRae

Marked ES, this brooch by Edward Schafer has a border of ornate leaves with samples of gold bearing quartz enclosed within the leaves. The small portrait of an unknown lady beneath a glass cover is flanked by a kangaroo and an emu. The brooch is in its original box. Other representative pieces by this maker can be seen in the Art Gallery of South Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Australia.

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DATE c. 1860

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MAKER Charles E. Firnhaber (attributed to) | Adelaide

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

LENT BY Trevor Hancock

AUSTR ALIAN MEMORIAL GOLD BROOCH WITH DAGUERROTYPE This is an outstanding example of Australian colonial gold jewellery. Its construction cost was significant given its gold gradeand quantity (it tests 18 carat and weights 58 grams), as well as the high production cost of the image. On the reverse is a glass floral memorial panel and an attachment for it to be worn as a pendant. This significant brooch is by arguably South Australia’s finest colonial jeweller: Charles Edward Firnhaber (1805–80). Discovered in South Australia, its style of construction has the crispness, solidity and outstanding quality in the gold floral work typical of Firnhaber’s hand. Of particular note is the unique style of massed vine growth of leaves, tendrils and bunches of grapes. This style is also seen on a smaller gold brooch by Firnhaber in the South Australian Museum. To date only four pieces of jewellery by Firnhaber are known. The Art Gallery of South Australia has a malachite brooch and locket and the South Australian Museum also holds a malachite brooch. Firnhaber migrated voluntarily from Prussia prior to the goldrushes, making him one of only a small handful of known pre-goldrush jewellers to settle of their own free will in Australia.

DATE c. 1860–70 MAKER unknown | probably New South Wales Private Collection PHOTO Andrew Simpson

‘Forget Me Not’ gold locket brooch Oval gold locket brooch with vine leaves, tendrils and an arrow piercing a heart above. The heart below is inscribed with ‘Forget Me Not’. The album photograph beneath the glass is of Harry Stephan, who discovered gold in Forbes in the Central West of New South Wales in 1860. This brooch was held in the sitter’s family collection by descent until time of sale in 1980.

Schofield A, & Fahy K, 1991, Australian Jewellery 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain, p. 31.

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DATE c. 1865

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MAKER Denis Bros (attributed to) | Melbourne LENT BY Trevor Kennedy

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

PHOTO John McRae

Gold locket brooch with emer alds Large 18 carat gold and emerald foliate locket brooch with tendrils and vines measuring 6.5 x 5.1 cm. A golden dove is set atop the design, which is flanked by an emu and a kangaroo. The use of small emeralds in this piece attributed to Denis Bros and the way in which they are set appears characteristic of a small number of surviving pieces. Generally speaking one can guess the age within ten years or so, as the bigger the brooch, the earlier the period of manufacture. This piece could easily therefore have been made as early as 1860 and certainly well before the brothers’ deaths in 1889.

DATE c. 1870 MAKER E. Schafer | Melbourne

Photogr aphic brooch with portr ait of a gentleman

Private Collection

Rotating locket brooch with a studio portrait of an unknown man and a contemporary photo in back. The glass-enclosed photograph is surrounded by gold work depicting a dove above and a bow below. Interestingly, the kangaroo and emu are in the reverse position usually found in this type of brooch. The acanthus leaves, a popular motif, are extremely finely worked. Stamped on the reverse with 15ct, the adopted English mark, and in two positions with a kangaroo cartouche, ES, and an emu cartouche, these are the unmistakable marks of this master craftsman.

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DATE c. 1870

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MAKER unknown | Australia

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

LENT BY Trevor Hancock

Memorial rotating brooch with bird’s nest

DATE c. 1880

This delicate memorial rotating brooch has a degree of grandeur about it. Many elements of its design are similar to a brooch and earring demi parure on page 61 of Schofield and Fahy (1991).

LENT BY Anne Schofield Antiques

Both the demi parure and this brooch have an easily recognisable ‘lightness’ in their construction. Their frames and the flora and fauna elements are both finely crafted with an openness in presentation. Both examples use seed pearls which, surprisingly, are not used as much as one would think in Australian colonial jewellery. Both examples of this maker’s work have doves in a prominent, formalised downward position, and both have leaves of the same style arranged in a formal presentation. Importantly, the unique feature to both is the similarly constructed central bird’s nest holding a single seed pearl as an egg. This brooch, which tests 15 carat, is presented in what could be its original box and which was probably imported from Britain. The photograph appears to be silver gelatin, a photographic process which began to gain dominance in the 1880s over ambrotypes and dageurrotypes.

Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian Jewellery, 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain.

MAKER Denis Bros (attributed to) | Melbourne

PHOTO courtesy Mossgreen Auctions

Austr alian bloomed and chased gold locket brooch An Australian bloomed and chased gold locket brooch with grape and vine leaf design. The front is set with an emerald, opening to reveal a hand coloured photograph of an unknown bearded gentleman. Fashioned by the renowned Sylla Denis, this piece could have simply been a way to carry the image of the wearer’s husband close to her heart, exploiting the new medium of photography as an aide-memoire.

Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian Jewellery, 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain.

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DATE c. 1875

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Decline of Mourning and Leading Change

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The customs of the 19th century were challenged throughout its latter half through rapid social change. As has been discussed, new wealth, and a generation of mourning spurred by Queen Victoria’s loss of Albert, and high mortality rates, birthed a youth disinterested in a static culture. Mourning rules included black for a year, the period of deepest mourning, followed by a half mourning displayed by wearing grey or mauve. We have already seen innovations in Australian jewellery using local motifs and materials, and as the century evolved, there was also increasing access to design and art from print media imported from Europe, England and America. This influenced taste and attitudes, and in particular encouraged a decline in mourning jewellery and clothing. The extract from the following article featured in The Australasian on Saturday, 6 October, 1900, shows just how Australia’s reaction to legacy and embracing change through mourning altered the fashion for a society.

MOURNING By Queen Bee

MAKER unknown | Australia RETAILED BY CG Irish | Brisbane

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

Oval locket brooch with leaves, flowers and portr ait of a gentleman In original blue velvet lined box, this brooch is smaller in scale than earlier pieces and represents a trend in downscaling toward the end of the century. Presented in what appears to be an original box marked CG Irish of Brisbane, this firm retailed as well as made jewellery, and as the brooch is unmarked, we cannot speculate as to who is the maker.

Reform, or rather rebellion against the old order of wearing mourning, is increasing day by day. The great mass of women now absolutely decline to invest themselves with quantities of crape and other fabrics that make outside shows of grief. Small wonder there is this change. The old order of things has always been desperately inconvenient, unbecoming, and costly. In no instance has this been so marked as in the case of the Widow. Even in the house she had to wear a cap that nearly hid all her hair, and finished with long cumbersome streamers to below the waist. Then it became eligibly diminished in size, if not in significance, and when it took the Marie Stuart form had an only recommendation – its becomingness. Bonnets, too, were heavily draped mounds of crape, finished with a full cap and wide white strings.

Those who remember the time when every article of jewellery had to be laid aside for the period of mourning, and give place to ornaments of sombre dull bog-oak or black enamel set with pearl, will rejoice in the introduction of these more rational customs. Of course, the fewer coloured jewels worn the better taste; diamonds and pearls are, however, exceptions, whether set in gold or silver. They can at all periods of mourning be freely worn, as there is nothing objectionable in their appearance; on the contrary, they do much to enhance the sombre effect of the back. With the extension of all these new ideas complimentary mourning has no longer any significance. It be worn for connections, but for mere friends, and then only for a week or so at the outside. 

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DATE c. 1890

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DATE c. 1880 MAKER Henry J Steiner | Adelaide LENT BY Trevor Kennedy

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

PHOTO John McRae

Amethyst brooch with pearls Marked H ST, 18 C for Henry Steiner, this 18 carat gold brooch holds eight pearls set in claws and a magnificent faceted amethyst. Amethysts were prized by jewellers for their depth of colour and variety of hues, which ranged from light blue violet to the brilliant purple seen in this brooch. The most brilliant stones were highly sought after and often set alongside pearls or with garnets to bring out their vivid colour, and were believed to protect the wearer and bring good luck.

Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian Jewellery, 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain, pp. 143–145. Ill p. 78

OPPOSITE Hand coloured photograph of Mrs. J.P. Fenning in her wedding gown. DATE 23 March 1868 COLLECTION Ballarat Historical Society IMAGE Courtesy Gold Museum | Ballarat

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MAKER Lamborn & Wagner | Melbourne

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

Buckle belt brooch Stamped on the back L W and with a crown denoting 18 carat gold, this gold and garnet brooch was made by Lamborn & Wagner, who operated in Lonsdale Street in Melbourne. Henry Leopold Wagner, said to be born in Germany, and William Lamborn, an English jeweller, established their firm together in January 1856. The pair appear to have operated together until 1884, after which the name Lamborn & Wagner disappears from directories. A large belt buckle is the focus of the brooch, flanked by two flowers with garnets. Belt buckles were a popular motif in Victorian jewellery. The look of the belt often represented eternity, whilst the buckle itself symbolised strength, fidelity or protection. Worn near one’s heart, a belt buckle brooch served as a symbol of loyalty and love.

Reymond, M 2014, ‘Gold Rush jewellers of Melbourne and Dunedin: Wagner & Woollett, Lamborn & Wagner and Woollett & Hewitt’, Australiana, Vol 4.

SET ON LEFT DATE c. 1870 MAKER Lamborn & Wagner (attributed to) | Melbourne SET ON RIGHT DATE c. 1870 MAKER unknown | Australia LENT BY Trevor Hancock

AUSTR ALIAN COLONIAL EAR PENDANTS Australian colonial ear pendants have become increasingly rare. The thinness of the gold, due to weight restraint and the propensity for loss of one or both by ladies over the years adds to their uncommon appearance on the market and in public collections. No ear pendants are known to contain maker’s marks and it is very rare to also find gold marks. Many ear pendants were made principally from high-grade gold and enhanced using locally sourced gems.

EAR PENDANTS ON LEFT

EAR PENDANTS ON RIGHT

Set with mine-cut rubies, these pendants conform to many of the design elements shown in the Lamborn & Wagner brooches in Cavill, Cocks & Grace p.144. The heavy and dense stippling on leaves and flower petals, together with the style in which the stones are mounted, match the oeuvre of Lamborn & Wagner’s work. Similar heavy work can be seen on the demi parure by Lamborn & Wagner in Schofield & Fahy, 1991, p.212.

These ear pendants feature contemporary naturalistic branches, with leaves, tendrils and stylized floral elements. The hooks are original, as are the drops to each base. The red stones are paste, or coloured glass which is not uncommon in Australian colonial jewellery. The maker is unknown, although the style is similar to jewellery crafted in Melbourne.

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DATE 1856–84

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101

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MAKER JT Sleep | Ballarat

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

LENT BY Gold Museum | Ballarat

Gold Br acelet This beautiful bracelet in its original box was made by JT Sleep from gold mined in Ballarat and is one of the few surviving pieces from the era with secure provenance. Joseph Thomas Sleep was a watchmaker, manufacturer of optical goods, jeweller and manufacturing silversmith situated at 7 Lydiard Street, Ballarat. In the 1875 Ballarat Directory Sleep advertised ‘watches by the best makers and watches and clocks repaired by skilful workmen’. Sleep was responsible for the magnificent gold mayoral chain of Ballarat. An interesting character in his own right, Sleep took an active interest in community affairs and in 1876 after years of volunteering became Major Sleep, commanding a Victorian detachment competing in rifle shooting at the Philadelphia centennial matches. He then became a colonel in the Third Regiment of the Defence Forces in Ballarat and the vicinity c. 1890.

DATE c. 1890 MAKER Flavelle and Roberts Ltd. | Sydney LENT BY Trevor Kennedy PHOTO John McRae

Gold and diamond flower brooch This Gold diamond flower brooch with pin for hair is presented in an original Flavelle and Roberts Ltd box. Foreign diamonds were sold early in the establishment of the colony; records from 1816 advertise the sale of diamonds along with combs and groceries at a Sydney general store. Diamonds for jewellery were imported from the other colonies until 1851, when diamonds were discovered near Bathurst NSW during the search for alluvial gold. In 1860 the first large sample of diamonds were mined, and 1867 more productive areas were discovered in Mudgee, and later on, in Bingara. Most diamonds were small and of fairly low quality, however several spectacular diamonds were discovered throughout the 1870s. The Australian jewels were first sold to London, often as ‘Brazilian diamonds’, and were soon used widely by local jewellers. The Flavelle Bros were active in 1850–56, Flavelle Bros and Co. operated 1856–59. The company went on to have many name changes depending on associates until their closure in 1920.

Harlow, G 1998, The Nature of Diamonds, American Museum of Natural History, New York, p. 98. Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian Jewellery, 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain, pp. 143–145. Ill p. 78.

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DATE c. 1865

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102

103

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MAKER David Rosenthal & Co. | Melbourne Private Collection RIGHT DATE c. 1870 MAKER unknown | Australia

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

Large oval cameo with gold tassels This is an imported Italian shell cameo, and gold tassels reflecting the continental fashion for Etruscan-inspired jewellery. It was made in Australia, by David Rosenthal and Co., and reflects a more conservative taste yet high regard for the height of European fashion. Shell cameos were imported, mostly from Italy.

Bird’s nest brooch Bird’s nest brooch with attending bird, snail, vine leaves and three seed pearl eggs. The seed pearl eggs are typical of Victorian jewellers’ use of gems, stones and pearls to create life-like images, scenes and landscapes. Their fascination with the natural world and romantic sensibilities abound in this truly marvellous little piece.

DATE c. 1880 MAKER T. Gaunt & Co. | Melbourne

Demi parure (or brooch and earrings set) with garnet

Private Collection

It is rare to find a set which has remained intact since manufacture. This demi parure is presented in its original box and is in superb condition, with few signs of wear. T. Gaunt & Co. was established shortly after Thomas Ambrose Gaunt arrived in Melbourne from London in 1852. Lured by the promise of a growing clientele in Marvellous Melbourne, he achieved rapid success and worked until the business was taken over by Frederick Heath in 1892.

Schofield, A and Fahy, K 1991, Australian Jewellery 19th and Early 20th Century, David Ell Press, Balmain, pp. 192–193.

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LEFT DATE 1874–78

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104

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MAKER unknown | Australia

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

Pounamu and gold brooch Pounamu, also called New Zealand jade and greenstone, is New Zealand’s highly prized stone used by Māori to denote status and authority, for adornment, and for making peace. Because of its link with chiefs and peace-making, it is considered to have mana (status) and to be tapu (sacred). The stone is highly treasured by all tribes throughout New Zealand, and was extensively traded in the North and South Islands. Found only in the South Island of New Zealand, it is of central importance to Māori culture and is highly prized for jewellery, ornaments, weapons and tools. The boulders from which pounamu comes are usually found in or near rivers. It is a nephrite containing iron which determines the depth of green colour. Jadeite, from which where jade derives its name, is not found in New Zealand, so this name is misleading.

Australian jewellers fashioned pounamu pieces incorporating Australian gold, presumably for export to the New Zealand souvenir jewellery market. This brooch may have been manufactured for export, or made for a contemporary Victorian wishing to denote their own status and authority. Māori traditionally placed no worth on gold – pounamu was their valuable mineral. In about 1852, upon seeing a sample of Tasmanian gold, one Māori said he had once picked up a potato-sized nugget from the banks of the Clutha, and had thrown it into the river. New Zealand gold rushes followed.

DATE c. 1880 MAKER TT Jones and Sons | Sydney Private Collection

Large pale citrine brooch The pale, clear colour of this brooch, made by TT Jones and Sons, is remarkable. TT Jones and Sons were renowned for the quality of their work. A newspaper article from 1884 celebrates the workmanship of the firm: ‘One of the oldest and most respectable houses in the trade in Sydney, is that of Messrs. T. T. Jones & Son, of George Street. This firm has been a life time engaged in business, and is known throughout the colonies with a reputation for the highest class of workmanship, and the most upright treatment of patrons. Messrs. Jones and Son have only occupied themselves with the first-class branches of the profession, and their establishment has in consequence been the depot of the most valuable jewellery and presentation goods to be found in Australia. In diamond rings, necklets, brooches, bracelets, etc., the display at Messrs. Jones’ has at all times been unique, and certainly of the greatest value. Their buying facilities in London give them command of the finest productions of modern art, which are here often shown as soon as they appear before the London or Parisian public.’

‘The Watch & Jewellery Business in Sydney’, North Australian, Darwin, Fri 28 Nov 1884, p. 2. ‘Pounamu’, Te ara, the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand < http://www.teara.govt.nz/>.

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DATE c. 1870

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MAKER Waddell | Kerang, Victoria

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

Botanical rectangular brooch William Manson Waddell opened in Wellington St, Kerang, in mid-1885 and sold his business to J. Wilson in late 1889. Waddell previously worked for Kilpatrick and Co. in Collins St, Melbourne. Newspaper advertisements in The Kerang Times and Swan Hill Gazette attest to this.

DATE c. 1895 MAKER AO Kopp | Perth Private Collection

Cameo on flat gold rectangular shield Marked AO Kopp, 9 carat, this spectacular brooch is in its original box. Shell cameos were usually imported from Italy, already worked and ready to be mounted in Australian gold. The unusual styling of this brooch shows some restraint typical of this maker, who is renowned for excellent quality and innovative practice.

Presented in its original box this brooch, with garnet or paste (coloured glass) set in the flower centre, has an unusual rectangular composition. Kerang lies in Victoria’s north on the Loddon River, and is an agricultural centre.

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DATE 1885–89

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Souvenirs of global gold seeking: goldfields jewellery of the 19th Century

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Dr Linda Young Part 2: The golden pick and shovel in jewellery

FIG. 2 The knob-finial bar which carries the gold digger emblems in this style of brooch is typical of 1890s–1910s design. More conventional bar brooches were decorated with flowers, shamrocks, bluebirds and such motifs.

Private Collection

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

This second generation of goldfields brooches was born of prospecting and mining in cruel desert conditions. Discoveries at Southern Cross (1890), Coolgardie (1892) and Kalgoorlie (1894) launched rushes which generated towns that soon sustained thousands of diggers working outlying claims.

FIG. 3 This rather crude design enlarges the characteristic bar brooch style into a horizontal plaque, but it continues to assert a proud message of the golden wealth of the black swan colony.

FIG. 4 The most standard form of the digger brooch, depicting the heads of both pick and shovel at the same end – the opposite of the earlier form.

Private Collection

IMAGE Anne Schofield Antiques

LENT BY Anne Schofield Antiques

Experienced diggers from the east coast colonies rushed west in the 1890s – and so did businessmen supplying both necessities and luxuries. Among them were some fifteen men who advertised in the new town directories as gold-buyers, watchmakers, opticians and jewellers, including several who had worked in Victoria. This isn’t as surprising as it might seem: the small-scale tools of goldsmithing make it a mobile trade, and gold is a relatively easily-worked material. In the coastal capital, Perth, and in the goldfields, these gold-rush artisanentrepreneurs made souvenir brooches, among their other services, which ranged from gold-buying to watch-mending and spectacles prescription. The primary Westralian brooch form displays variations on the theme of pick, shovel, sledgehammer and crowbar. The

miniature tools, 3–4cm long, are arranged in heraldic bundles, often with a nugget at the crossing (figs.1–2). The crossed pick and shovel is an old civic symbol, used over the centuries to indicate mining as a source of wealth. It is notable that diggers sometimes posed for photographs with the tools of their labour arranged this way, indicating a highly self-conscious statement of achievement. A minority of Westralian brooches are surmounted by an arch carrying tiny fret-worked letters spelling out the name of a mine or town. A second design focuses on a miniature windlass (the lifting device to raise and lower buckets of rich dirt out of shallow mine shafts), flanked by pick and shovel, also sometimes surmounted by a fret-worked name (Figs. 1–2). A bucket usually dangles through the nugget-lined mine-mouth under the windlass. These disparate elements are unified by placement on a golden bar, forming the front of the brooch pin. A third form develops the conventional bar brooch style, which in more fashionable contexts features cut stones or sentimental motifs. In the Westralian goldfields type, the bar or bars may be starkly studded with one or more nuggets, and sometimes a dangling nugget for good measure. These are the strong, distinctive features of a local tradition, if tradition can be said to take shape in less than ten years. But in the roiling environment of the goldfields, the basic forms hybridised, producing some complex and rather awkward designs. The arch of snipped letters naming a region, town or a mine appears irregularly on

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FIG. 1 The crossed pick and shovel motif constitutes the first and fundamental mining brooch. The symbol of mining can be seen on many heraldic shields, which in Australia usually included a sheep, a sheaf of wheat and a ship, the means of getting them all to market.

In the 1890s, a second original brooch form emerged on the new goldfields of Western Australia. To be precise, it comprised variations on the theme: combinations of pick, shovel and other tools, with and without nuggets. The general style was smaller and simpler than the 1850–60s brooches, and designed more horizontally, to be worn with high-necked fashions of the turn of the twentieth century.

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introduce the undeniably eloquent quality of a lump of gold. A very expressive watch chain could be composed of nugget links or gold bearing quartz links, and accompanied by a large nugget fob. The watch would stay snug in a waistcoat pocket, but the fob and the chain itself, worn boldly across the midriff of a successful digger, constituted a forthright statement of success.

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Numerous makers of these objects — unlike the Victorian and New South Wales cases — stamped their work with names or initials; Dorothy Erickson traces many in her Gold and Silversmithing in Western Australia (2010). Why did so few makers mark their work? Perhaps most felt they were producing a one-off design for a particular market. In this case, they may have been surprised by the level of demand, for several designs have survived in multiples. Certainly, they used mass-manufactured findings, such as decorative galleries and finials, imported from Melbourne or Europe.

all forms of Western Australian brooch. Larger and smaller scaled tools sometimes combine in the same piece. Horizontality is stressed in a flatter and even parallel arrangement of tools. Further motifs such as scrolls and the colonial emblem of the (black) swan appear intermittently (Fig. 3). Men’s jewellery echoes the brooches in the reduced form of the tiepin, a stickpin topped by a miniature crossed pick and shovel, sometimes with bucket. Nugget tiepins are far more common, and while anonymous, Gold fob chain with Gold bearing Quartz links DATE c. 1895 MAKER unknown Private Collection

The tumult of brooch design came to focus on a simplified form to meet this demand for keepsakes of the gold rush: the pick and shovel pair, joined by a nugget at the centre. These should be called serial rather than mass production, for there are small differences amongst almost all (Fig. 4). And then the pick and shovel went global – to Alaska-Yukon, to the continental United States, and to British manufacturing jewellery houses, which despatched it to South Africa. 

DATE c. 1890 MAKER T. T Jones & Sons | Sydney LENT BY Trevor Hancock

Austr alian goldfields brooch with swallow Victorian sentiment abounds in this brooch, which is unusual in that it blends genres of foliate motifs and with the miners pick. The swallow, with a leaf in its beak, is among the Victorians a symbol for a loved one returning safely home. Aptly, swallows were often the first birds seen by ships returning to port.

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19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Meanwhile, gold accessible from surface workings declined towards 1910. Deep telluride ores were discovered, which maintain the gold industry in Western Australia to this day. The technology to mine ore and extract gold from it required major capital investment in industrial production. This shifted the goldfields labour force from individuals and small partnerships – diggers – to regular miners. Yet demand persisted for pick and shovel brooches.

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MAKER Larard Bros | Melbourne and Perth | this piece was probably made in Perth

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

Coolgardie brooch This brooch is stamped with the date 1894 as well as Larard Bros makers’ mark. The date stamp indicates the date of registration of the design rather than indicating year of manufacture. The open fretwork lettering is unique to the Western Australian goldfields market, which was keen for souvenirs of success. As opposed to the precursors from the 1850s, these brooches would have been likely commissions and purchases from mine managers or owners rather than individual diggers, as alluvial gold was quickly snapped up before companies stepped in and made claims. The Coolgardie brooches are more plentiful than other named pieces, as they were made as souvenirs for the Coolgardie exhibition in 1899.

DATE c. 1890 RETAILER OR MAKER H.F. Hutton | Ballarat LENT BY Gold Museum | Ballarat PHOTO courtesy Mossgreen Auctions

Goldfields brooch with shovel The shovel boasts a nugget on the blade, and one on the shaft tied with a gold rope, demonstrating success through labour. Far simpler than earlier brooches, and lacking the sentimentality of many. The box appears original, and bears the gold embossed stamp of H.F. Hutton, who was active in Ballarat the 1860s to the 1940s. Boxes alone cannot tell us who made the jewellery, as often wholesale jewellers manufactured pieces for retail sale. Makers’ marks, stamps, receipts, original sketches and descriptions in newspapers can assist in securing provenance. HF Hutton was one of Ballarat’s finest jewellers in the 19th century, with an impressive showroom on Sturt Street which boasted luxury goods from England and Europe.

Larard Bros produced goldfields brooches in Victoria and Western Australia. They registered their mark in Western Australia as ‘W.A .6’ on 17/4/1894 and in Victoria as 6N REG above 29 3 94 on 29/3/1894 as Vic 720. Some items were made in Western Australia to avoid the heavy import duties in place until 1907.

Cavill, K, Cocks, G and Grace, J 1992, Australian Jewellers and Silversmiths – Makers & Marks, C.G.C. Gold Pty Ltd, Roseville, pp. 146–149. Dorothy Erickson, personal communication, 2016.

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DATE c. 1895–1900

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MAKER unknown | Australia Private Collection

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PHOTO Andrew Simpson

goldfields nugget brooch with swans Two naturalistic swans face inward to frame a natural, water-worn, heart-shaped nugget. These symbols of Western Australia and success on the fields are set on a thick gold plate with knife-edge wire scroll decorations at each end and a chain beneath.

The nugget is waterworn, unusual for Western Australia, and is shaped suspiciously like Tasmania. Perhaps it is a Tasmanian brooch, or even a Tasmanian nugget made into a brooch in Western Australia when the owner moved on?

DATE c. 1900 MAKER unknown | Australia Private Collection

Austr alian goldfields brooch with sieve The parallel shovel and spade, crossed by a double-ended pick with a sieve in the centre indicate this brooch is unlikely to have been made for a Victorian field, as the sieve was used in drier climates where air and gravity, rather than water washed away the fine dirt, leaving behind the precious metal. It was possibly made in Gympie, Queensland.

The jeweller Addis, who enjoyed fossicking in Tasmania, was known to have a collection of nuggets which he took to Western Australia with him, and others may have done the same.

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DATE c. 1890

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RETAILER GR Addis | Perth MAKER Donovan and Overland | Perth

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

Coolgardie mining brooch with windlass and ‘Londonderry Golden Hole’ This brooch is stamped March 1894, the date wholesalers Donovan and Overland registered the design. It was likely to have been made for the 1899 Coolgardie exhibition as a souvenir. While Donovan and Overland registered the design, GR Addis restocked pieces from various wholesalers after a fire relieved him of his stock. Addis then stamped plates and applied them to jewellery with his own marks, which accounts for stylistic variations between pieces marked with his name. The design itself, featuring a shovel, mattock, windlass, mine and bucket has an interesting origin. The ‘Londonderry Golden Hole’ motif recurs in a few brooches of the era, characterised by a uniformly rectangular pit hole through which the gold is winched. As Dorothy Erickson explains: The ‘golden hole’ surrounded by quartz rocks beneath the windlass was derived from the legendary, or rather infamous, Londonderry strike at Coolgardie. World traveller May Vivienne remarked in her book that she had seen a large block of gleaming white quartz from the Londonderry mine, thickly studded with nuggets. The strike hole was sealed over while the principals went to London to raise the finance to develop the mine, which was reported to be £750,000. However once the money was raised and the mine shaft opened, no more gold was found. Was it bad luck or a fraud? (refer to Dorothy Erickson on pages 134–135).

DATE c. 1895–1900 MAKER GR Addis | Perth Private Collection

W.A. Goldfields brooch, K algoorlie Featuring a miners’ pick, where one end is a hammer, and a bucket swinging beneath the windlass and pit, the brooch is marked GR Addis, 18ct. The text ornamentation trend in Western Australia continued well into the 20th century. This brooch is identical to those made by Boxhorn as seen in plate 52 in Cavill, Cocks and Grace, 1992 p. 53 and Erickson 2010, plate 56, p. 94. Only subtle differences in the fretwork, and the stamp on Boxhorn differentiate the pieces. It is probable both jewellers used the same wholesalers. Note the rounded hole as opposed to the rectangular-shaped shafts in other pieces from the same area and era. Round mine shafts were constructed by Chinese miners rather than square or rectangular ones. This is sound engineering, as a cylindrical shaft has better structural integrity than a square one, which needs a great deal of shoring-up. It is also likely to reflect the Chinese superstition that evil spirits hide in corners, and they would not want to turn their back on such spirits. Similarly, they had curves on their joss house roofs and portals so that the evil spirits would slide down and then swoop upwards away from them. It is unclear if this brooch makes a direct reference to this.

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DATE c. 1895–1900

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MAKER JM Wendt | Adelaide

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection

Goldfields double bar brooch with nugget Marked JMW 15 ct, this double bar brooch with fluted finials (probably imported from Europe) boasts a large nugget which shows little evidence of weathering. The brooch would have originally boasted a safety chain as evidenced by the small loop fixture on the bottom bar in the centre. Many gold rushes and goldfields did exist in South Australia, but their significance has been eclipsed by the massive yields in other colonies. For example, gold was detected by William Chapman, Hardiman and Hampton in Chapman Gully (Chapman’s Gully) and Donkey Gully at Echunga in the Mount Lofty Ranges in 1852. This led to the state’s first major gold rush and yielded 3100 kg of gold. Many more finds and rushes occurred over the next 45 years, including the significant find by a shearing-shed hand by the name of Nichols, who stumbled on gold in 1893 at Tarcoola. The Tarcoola goldfield is still in operation to this day. The nugget on this brooch was probably from locally won gold and demonstrated the later Aesthetic period fashion for slim double bars with fluted finials.

DATE c. 1900 MAKER Donovan & Overland (attributed to) | Western Australia Private Collection

W.A. Goldfields brooch – donnybrook Marked 18c, the fretwork announces Donnybrook, where gold was found in 1897 by Richard Hunter, who discovered gold about 6 kilometres south of the town of Donnybrook in the south west of Western Australia. He sold out to Fred Camilleri, a well-known prospector from Kalgoorlie, who gained the interest of internationally renowned Polish geologist Modest Maryanski. Maryanski claimed there were large deposits in the area. It was on the basis of Maryanski’s report that a new company, Donnybrook Goldfields Ltd, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1899. A mini gold rush occurred, but the excitement was short-lived and the mine closed in August 1903. The symbol of the ‘Londonderry Golden Hole’ in this brooch represents the initial promise of great riches from the mine. The Donnybrook mine reopened in the 1930s, then again in the 1980s when gold reached astronomical prices. Today it is a tourist destination. Brooches boasting the names of significant fields were commissioned by mine owners and managers, as the days of individual prospecting had all but passed. This is with the exception of the Coolgardie brooches, which as mentioned previously, were often souvenirs from the great exhibition held there in 1899.

Erickson, D 2010, Gold and Silversmithing in Western Australia, A History, UWA publishing, Crawley.

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DATE c. 1890–1900

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MAKER unknown | Australian or South African LENT BY Anne Schofield Antiques

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

PHOTO courtesy Anne Schofield Antiques

goldfields brooch with pick, shovel and bucket

DATE late 19C MAKER unknown | Australia LENT BY Jane Smith

Typical of many designs of the time, this brooch has a crossed pick with a nugget on the end, a shovel with an applied nugget, a tiny gold bucket and a central nugget tied on with a golden rope. It is difficult to tell the difference between Australian and South African designs of this type, however we do know that no marked Western Australian examples have so far been recorded with a rope motif. Analysis of the nugget may yield information about its true origin.

Gold nugget brooch By the end of the 19th century, goldfields jewellery became simpler, lighter and the bling factor had all but disappeared in the genre. This 9 carat rose gold safety pin brooch with native gold nugget exemplifies simplicity and would certainly be a lot easier to wear than many of its predecessors. The nugget appears alluvial, and was possibly a prized find by a lucky lone prospector near the turn of the century. Some jewellers had a stock of attractive nuggets and would have simply mounted and sold them from their store.

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DATE c. 1895

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Uncovering the Jewellers of the North Queensland Colonial Goldfields

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Katrina Banyai

DATE c. 1895 Oil on Canvas

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland | Brisbane

Polished quartz and gold brooch DATE c. 1890 MAKER unknown | probably Palmer River region | Queensland Private Collection

jewellers represent the spectrum of the jewellery trade at the time, with Lyall’s work representative of the affordable middleclass market and Dietz’s work illustrative of high-end public commissions. Both were advanced craftsmen by the time they arrived on the Northern Goldfields and their approach would come to represent the dynamic of the field. The Northern Goldfields encompassed a large area, taking in fields such as Ravenswood to the south, the Palmer River goldfields of Ethridge to the north, Cape River to the southwest and the northern fields near Croydon. However, it was the major goldfield of Charters Towers that proved to be the most profitable for the goldfields jewellers to work their trade. The field was founded on 31 August 1872 after a local indigenous boy, Jupiter Mosman, had first found gold while searching for

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FIG. 1 William Allom, ‘Charters Towers Goldfields’

From 1869 to 1905, the North Queensland goldfields were a major contributor to gold production in Australia and by the mid-1880s, ‘Queensland could boast that its leading goldfield, Charters Towers, was second only to Bendigo as a consistent producer of gold’.1 As a result, a flourishing trade in jewellery manufacture emerged on the Northern Goldfields. During this period, over 16 known manufacturing jewellers worked within the region,2 following the ebb and flow of the gold rush around Australia. The work of these jewellers remains an area of scant academic knowledge; however, newly discovered information has shed light on their work and their movements around the goldfields, giving a greater insight into how the different styles of goldfields jewellery developed regionally. Two of the most prominent jewellers on the Northern Goldfields were David Lyall and Christian Dietz. These

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The Northern Miner, December 20, 1899, p. 5.

DATE late 1890s MAKER David Lyall PHOTO courtesy Deborah Bray

a runaway horse.3 From there, it quickly grew as speculation was encouraged by the Queensland Government to lure men from Victoria to the Northern Goldfields.

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection TOP RIGHT FIG. 4 Fifteen-Carat Pick and Shovel Brooch | Reg. Design ‘W.A.10.’ DATE 1896 MAKER Rosenthal and Aronson Co. Dorothy Erickson, Gold and Silversmithing in Western Australia: A History (Crawley: UWA Publishing, 2010), p. 82. BOTTOM RIGHT FIG. 5 Gold Mounted Shell Pin | Unstamped DATE c. 1870s MAKER Christian Dietz (attributed to) LENT BY Katrina Banyai

The Charters Towers field became the most lucrative of all the northern fields as it presented an opportunity to trade beyond the initial fever of the alluvial rush. In particular, it was the proliferation of processing plants (particularly those employing the cyanidation process)4 and company mining that provided miners with stable work in company mines and mills, instead of depending on the hope of an unpredictable independent fortune. This meant that the life of this field was greatly extended as previously exhausted sites were revisited and reprocessed through chemical means, allowing more gold to be found with

David Lyall immigrated to Australia from Edinburgh aged 27 and, as a jeweller, quickly capitalised on the longevity of the Charters Towers field by catering to a growing middle-class society.5 In fact, by the 1880s, women and children on the field represented over 50 percent of the population6 and, naturally, there was a growing demand for accessible, fashionable and functional jewellery. By catering to this demand, Lyall became the most financially successful of the Northern Goldfields jewellers, conducting business on the field from 1886 until his retirement in 1906.7 Lyall’s business flourished and by 1904 he had opened a second store on the field, as well as a third premises in Cessnock, New South Wales. The security and stability of the mining context meant that families soon followed and gave local jewellers the opportunity to provide them with affordable jewellery. The fact that they were catering to local

LEFT FIG. 6 Advertisement Promoting Christian Dietz’s Shell and Quandong Jewellery, 1880. ‘Charters Towers Obsevratory [sic]’, The Northern Miner, September 21, 1880, p. 11. RIGHT FIG. 7 Christian Dietz, Solid Silver Casket, c. 1891. The North Queensland Register: Christmas Edition, December 21, 1892, p. 12.

While Lyall was clearly influenced by his local context, the pick and shovel brooch (fig. 3) demonstrates that he was also prepared to appropriate designs from further afield. Based on the cross-referencing of newly discovered primary examples during this study, it is reasonable to firmly attribute this piece to Lyall’s workshop; however, the design is a registered design from a Western Australian wholesale manufacturer, Rosenthal and Aronson. The brooch displays a large sledgehammer inscribed with ‘Charters Towers’, which is crossed over a chisel. Positioned above this is a small shovel and miner’s pick, precisely situated at the apex on both sides of the work. Neatly covering this intersection is a miner’s gold pan, perfectly positioned at an angle to show off its bounty of a large nugget. Dangled precociously under the nugget is a single bucket, representing the product for which the pan operates. The original brooch by Rosenthal and Aronson (fig. 4), has been identified as a registered design of this company in Western Australia (W.A.10) from 1896.8 The Rosenthal and Aronson

piece is marked ‘Coolgardie’ in an identical manner to the Charters Towers version. It is worth noting that Alexander Lyall, who worked in Coolgardie as a jeweller during this period,9 may have come into contact with the Rosenthal and Aronson firm, and consequently may have appropriated the design.10 Interestingly, this appropriation occurred between two fields that had many environmental and social similarities, further underscoring the importance of situational factors in shaping jewellery styles on the goldfields in Australia. In bringing his business tactic of producing small-low cost, high turnover items to North Queensland, David Lyall was able to successfully exploit the opportunities of the northern rush to his advantage. Christian Dietz was another immigrant jeweller who, like Lyall, saw an opportunity to capitalise in the North Queensland market. Dietz immigrated to Australia in 1863 from the famous gold and silver smithing town of Hanau, Prussia,11 and by 1873 had started his goldfields career in the port town of Cooktown,12 where he serviced the needs of the tenuous Palmer River goldfields, with fellow Prussian jeweller Nathan Borchardt in Charlotte Street. Figure 5 illustrates the kind of work that he may have produced there.13 This item consists of a small cowrie shell, encircled by a thin band of 18-carat gold, hinged to a bar pin at the back. Covering the shell at one end is a small cap with scalloped edges and ball finial. While not stamped, this piece displays the same use of local natural materials that became a noted characteristic of Dietz’s work in Cooktown. After relocating to Mosman Street on the Charters Towers field in 1880, Dietz advertised his specialty of ‘Gold Mounted Quandong and Shell Jewellery’ (fig. 6).

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less effort. This can be seen in the painting ‘The Charters Towers Goldfields’ by North Queensland artist William Allom (fig. 1), a survey image in which numerous mills are displayed prominently. The stability of this approach to mining also attracted a diverse population and, with it, opportunities for merchants to service their needs.

TOP FIG. 2 Illustrated examples of Lyall’s wares.

CENTRE FIG. 3 Fifteen-Carat Pick and Shovel Brooch

families inevitably shaped the way jewellers worked and operated, resulting in smaller souvenir pieces that were accessible and largely functional. David Lyall’s work was characteristic of this trend: he produced affordable, quality pieces that were fashionable (taking note of European trends), but not so ambitious in design that it prevented profitable manufacture. Thus, Lyall’s trade largely followed the middleclass fashions of the 1880s and 1890s, as seen in this 1899 advertisement (fig. 2). Designs emphasised simplicity, which was essential in the north due to the lighter fabrics worn by women. Consequently, this is seen as a key feature of Lyall’s work and, more generally, as a typical trait of jewellery from the North Queensland goldfields.

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Neoclassical and Renaissance Revivalist accents in the form of the lion’s head motifs on the stem and the flourishes of ornate scroll work. The form of this trophy is typical of Australian decorative cups produced in the nineteenth century, yet it is interesting to note that, even though the trophy depicts a horse and rider in the form of a finial,19 it was in fact made for a running race, won by prominent local mine manager, Jimmy Carroll, at a regional athletics carnival in 1884. It remains unclear whether this specific design was requested by the club or it was simply a matter of availability, given that the cup was donated by Dietz as a prize (presumably again for self-promotion). 20

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Evidence suggests that Dietz was interested in the creative significance of local material, combining it with local motifs, such as native flowers, local animals and Indigenous people, and nationalistic sentiments, framed by European design. While this was a particular attribute of noted southern jewellers such as Henry Steiner and Joachim Wendt, this approach was not common among the Northern Goldfields jewellers. As a result, Dietz’s work was set apart from his local contemporaries, and for the first time, created an artistic expression of North Queensland.14 This can be seen most notably in his copy of the ‘Alexandra Casket’ (fig. 7) of Hogarth’s original (fig. 8).

FIG. 8 The Hogarth gold casket presented to the Princess of Wales by the Ladies of New South Wales. Illustrated London News, 25 June 1864. IMAGE courtesy J B Hawkins Australian Silver Reference Library

This work shows that Dietz, unlike his contemporary Lyall, aspired to more than just commercial success. Advertising that he had previously been employed in a Sydney workshop alongside acclaimed colonial jeweller Julius Hogarth,15 Dietz provided evidence for this claim by remaking articles that had been made famous by Hogarth, such as the ‘Princess Alexandra Casket’ from 1864.16 Dietz appropriated Hogarth’s

design to produce this local version, which shows a marked departure from the strong neoclassical influence of the Hogarth design. For example, Dietz privileges the emblematic figures of the kangaroo and emu, which are separated by a large golden nugget on top of the casket, and are framed prominently on all four sides by Indigenous figures. Evidence has suggested that articles such as the ‘Alexandra Casket’ were made at Dietz’s own cost in the pursuit of public promotion and to display his skills as a silversmith.17 As a result, he rapidly created a reputation for himself as a jeweller of considerable talent, capable of producing highly artistic presentation pieces. Dietz is recorded as having created magnificent trophies from local gold, reportedly worth as much as 80 sovereigns.18 Hence, a substantial number of his recorded commissions were for community commemorative items, such as the ‘Charters Towers Athletic Club Sports District Cup’ (attributed to Dietz) and displayed in this exhibition (fig. 9). The design of this hand-formed trophy references Dietz’s European heritage with

FIG. 9 ‘Charters Towers Athletic Club Sports District Cup’ DATE 1884 MAKER Christian Dietz (attributed to) Sterling Silver LENT BY the Charters Towers and Dalrymple Archives

Unfortunately, Dietz’s business practices may have eventually led to his bankruptcy in 1888. 22 Dietz employed three specialist jewellers and watchmakers in his studio, 23 suggesting that it was a small, but specialised, practice. Given the high calibre of work he was producing, if a commission was not settled or if his own artistic impetus created exhibition pieces beyond his business’s means, the risk of insolvency would have been high. Thus, one can speculate that, like his mentor Hogarth, Dietz overcapitalised in his exhibition work, causing mounting unpaid bills for materials from Brisbane jewellery manufacturing firms, such as S Hoffnung and Co. and Feldman, Gotthelf and Co. 24 Dietz’s facsimile of the ‘Alexandra Casket’, a remnant of this exuberance, was probably raffled off in a last attempt to attract some solid trade to the business in order to recoup the losses. Despite the creative success Dietz received locally, he never achieved wider recognition, having been a constant entrant in regional exhibitions, as well as colonial exhibits.

Dietz’s continued pursuit of excellence in this field—which was continually documented through his participation in many local pastoral, agricultural and mining association shows, as well as colonial exhibitions— should have established him as a master silversmith nationally. His work was often acknowledged regionally for its artistic merit and Dietz became regarded as a silversmith capable of the highest class of workmanship. The following is a review of Dietz’s work that received a prestigious silver medal at the Charters Towers Pastoral, Agricultural and Mining Association exhibition in 1881:

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Only recently have known examples of Dietz’s silversmithing work come to light. There could be many reasons for this lack of representation by northern jewellers, however evidence does suggest that Dietz, like many of his contemporaries on the goldfields of Australia, were overinvested and found the inconsistent nature of the jewellery business hard to sustain financially. Documents show that Dietz himself went into receivership during his time on the Northern Fields. 21

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They comprised a large collection of locally manufactured jewellery in gold and silver which, for beauty of design and finish of workmanship, could compare with the highest class work in London or Paris … Mr Dietz received silver medal prizes for all his exhibits, and we think no one who saw them will question the justness of the award.25 Dietz also exhibited further afield in Brisbane, including the 1887 Brisbane Jubilee Exhibition, 26 which not only solidified his reputation for excellence, but also highlighted the use of local materials and gave an insight into life on the North Queensland goldfields for those from around Queensland and beyond. For this exhibition, records indicate that Dietz submitted a claret jug with Naturalistic styling. 27 This work saw Dietz win four

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first-order merits for mounted silverwork at this exhibition alone. 28 Clearly, his exhibited work demonstrated a level of skill beyond that of the average local jeweller and it is likely that his ambition was to establish a style that articulated life in the north. Moreover, the commendation of Dietz’s work in many of these exhibitions is testament to Dietz’s desire to not only draw attention to the quality of his own practice, but also to bring attention to the North Queensland goldfields. His continued perseverance working in this area, along with his incorporation of local narratives and materials into his work, are testament to this ambition. From this insight into two of North Queensland’s most conspicuous jewellers, it becomes apparent that the Northern Goldfields was an area of much activity for colonial Australian jewellers and there was good reason for the numerous jewellers that it attracted. In examining the work and careers of both David Lyall and Christian Dietz, it becomes clear that there was a unique social and contextual dynamic at play that offered the chance to gain financial or critical success. Yet while this dynamic provided the immigrant jewellers with opportunities, it also presented its own set of issues to overcome. Lyall buffered his way through these times due to his business acumen, creating mass products at an affordable price. Dietz, on the other hand, saw an opportunity to break out from

under the shadow of the Sydney elite and develop the local market in remote North Queensland by utilising materials and imagery relevant to the area. It is clear that the contextual circumstances of the Northern Goldfields certainly influenced the work of these jewellers. While taking different approaches to their business, it is clear that they fulfilled the demand in the area. This demand was undoubtedly shaped by factors such as a closed market with company mining, the absence of instant wealth due to the downturn of alluvial mining, a hotter climate (where fashion was adapted), a strong sense of nationalism locally and the remoteness of the area. The study of these previously unknown jewellers, David Lyall and Christian Dietz, gives great insight into the larger vernacular of Australian colonial jewellery and silversmithing. Their story allows us to understand more completely how jewellers interpreted the social and industrial dynamics of regional areas and how they shaped their work and businesses to suit the transient trends of the gold rush. 

NOTES 1

Judith McKay, A Good Show: Colonial Queensland at International Exhibitions, (PhD Thesis). (Brisbane: University of Queensland, 1996), p. 154.

2 Between 1872 and 1902, Queensland post office directories and census documents listed the following jewellers, silversmiths and watchmakers: J. W. Keilling—Gill Street, J. Castles—Gill Street, C. Rattray—Mosman and later Gill Street, J. Webb—Gill Street, H. Pattern—Gill Street, D. G. Davis—Gill Street, J. Meiklejohn—Lower Gill Street, A. Walmsley—Gill Street, J. J. Williams— Gill Street, M. Barnett—Mosman Street (Stock Exchange Arcade), D. Lyall—Mosman and Gill Street, S. J. Eddy—Gill Street, C. Dietz—Mosman Street, R. Binder—Mosman Street, J. Wilkie—Gill Street, and W. Pink—Gill Street. Queensland Post Office Directory 1891 (Modbury, S. Aust.: Archive Digital Books Australasia, c. 2009). Willmett’s Northern Queensland Almanac & Directory: Miners and Settlers Companion (Brisbane: State Library of Queensland, 1876). 3 W. Lees, The Goldfields of Queensland (Brisbane: Outridge Printing Co., 1899), p. 3. 4 One of the primary reasons for the advancement of the Charters Towers goldfields over other Queensland fields lay in its ability to process raw material effectively through the cyanidation method. By the end of 1878, there were 12 mills in operation and three pyrite plants established. E. V. Springer, ed., Charters Towers Centenary 1872–1972—Glimpses of Glory (Charters Towers: Charters Towers City Council, 1972), p. 29. In 1879, the total amount of gold produced in Charters

Towers was 63,715 oz. from 41,584 tons of ore. In comparison, by 1893 (with the use of cyanide), 180,208 tons of ore was producing a staggering 216,660 fine oz. Diane Menghetti, ‘Charters Towers’ (PhD Diss., James Cook University, 1984), p. 54. 5 Michael Brumby, Charters Towers: People and Places (Charters Towers: Charters Towers and Dalrymple Archives Group, 2010), p. 39. 6 As recorded in the 1876 census of the Charters Towers goldfields. Menghetti, ‘Charters Towers’, p. 96. 7 David Lyall passed away in New South Wales in 1910, although the business in Charters Towers remained in the Lyall family until 1939. Brumby, Charters Towers, p. 39. 8 Dorothy Erickson, Gold and Silversmithing in Western Australia: A History (Crawley: UWA Publishing, 2010), p. 83. 9 After being briefly listed as a missing person, Alexander was then noted to be practising in Coolgardie, Western Australia, after following the rush there. ‘Obituary: Sir Henry Frederick Ponsonby’, The Kalgoorlie Miner, November 23, 1895, p. 3. 10 Due to the transient nature of merchants on the goldfields, appropriation was common and designs were often copied when a patent did not extend beyond the manufacturer’s immediate colony. It is possible that this occurred with Rosenthal and Aronson’s patent, which existed only in Western Australia, and was copied by Lyall in the colony of Queensland, which was perfectly legal. 11 E. and R. Kopittke, Emigrants from Hamburg: 1863 (Brisbane: Indooroopilly Family History Society Inc., 1991). 12 ‘Dietz has been in Cooktown since its opening and thinks Charters Towers a better field for the business’. The Northern Miner, April 3, 1880, p. 2. 13 This item has provenance links to an established grazing family settled in the Palmer River area at the time. Therefore, it is with reasonable certainty that this item may be attributed to Dietz, as he was the main jeweller servicing the Palmer River goldfields during this period. Katrina Cook, ‘Glimpses of Glory: North Queensland Colonial Goldfields Jewellery and Silver’, Canberra: Australian National University, October 13, 2014, p. 47. 14 The Northern Miner, May 16, 1887, p. 3. 15 The North Queensland Register: Christmas Edition, December 21, 1892, p. 12. 16 Hogarth’s workshop was located at Hunter Street, Sydney, during the creation of the ‘Princess of Wales Casket’ in 1864. J. B. Hawkins, ‘Julius Hogarth: Behind the Shop Front. Part 2: The Second and Third Bankruptcies’, Australiana Magazine, August, 2000, p. 69. 20 The Northern Miner, November 28, 1892, p. 4. 21 ‘Charters Towers: May 12’, The Queenslander, May 29, 1880, p. 680. 22 Dietz was noted to have used a horse finial in a number of his documented works. The Northern Miner, May 16, 1887, p. 3. 23 ‘It was stated that Mr. C. Dietz is willing to let the cup go to the next man that wins it, and when that is won he will give something else.’ The Northern Miner, December 30, 1885, p. 2.

24 The Brisbane Courier, February 24, 1888, p. 5. 25 Ibid. 26 Dietz’s recorded employees included Mr Hurry, Mr Bradley and Mr Heindorf. The Northern Miner, June 9, 1881, p. 2.

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27 Total liabilities were £2,489 9d. The settlement was scheduled for 15 March, 1888. ‘Latest Commercial Telegrams: February 21’, The Queenslander, February 25, 1888, 288. Incidentally, these same firms were also listed as creditors in the bankruptcy case of Dietz’s former employer, Hogarth. J. B. Hawkins, ‘Julius Hogarth: Behind the Shop Front. Part 1: The First Bankruptcy’, Australiana Magazine, May 2000, p. 44. 28 The Northern Miner, June 9, 1881, p. 2. 29 J. Edgar Byrne, ‘Brisbane Jubilee Exhibition: A Bird’s Eye View’, Queensland Figaro and Punch, August 27, 1887, p. 11. 30 Ibid. 31 ‘Brisbane Jubilee Exhibition Results: Artisan’s Prizes’, The Queenslander, August 27, 1887, p. 349.

REFERENCES Brumby, Michael. Charters Towers: People and Places. Charters Towers: Charters Towers and Dalrymple Archives Group, 2010. Byrne, J. Edgar. ‘Brisbane Jubilee Exhibition: A Bird’s Eye View’, Queensland Figaro and Punch, August 27, 1887, 11. Cook, Katrina. ‘Glimpses of Glory: North Queensland Colonial Goldfields Jewellery and Silver.’ Canberra: Australian National University, October 13, 2014. Erickson, Dorothy. 2010. Gold and Silversmithing in Western Australia. Crawley: UWA Publishing. Hawkins, J. B. ‘Julius Hogarth: Behind the Shop Front. Part 1: The First Bankruptcy’. Australiana Magazine, May 2000. —. ‘Julius Hogarth: Behind the Shop Front. Part 2: The Second and Third Bankruptcies.’ Australiana Magazine, August, 2000. Kopittke, E. and R. Emigrants from Hamburg: 1863. Brisbane: Indooroopilly Family History Society Inc., 1991. Lees, W. The Goldfields of Queensland. Brisbane: Outridge Printing Co., 1899. McKay, Judith. A Good Show: Colonial Queensland at International Exhibitions (PhD Thesis). Brisbane: University of Queensland, 1996. —. ‘A Mountain of Gold’. In A Good Show: Colonial Queensland at International Exhibitions, by Judith McKay, 145−255. Brisbane: University of Queensland, 1996. Menghetti, Diane. ‘Charters Towers’. PhD Dissertation, James Cook University, 1984. Queensland Post Office Directory 1891. Modbury, S. Aust.: Archive Digital Books Australasia, c. 2009. Springer, E. V., ed. Charters Towers Centenary 1872–1972—Glimpses of Glory. Charters Towers: Charters Towers City Council, 1972. Willmett’s Northern Queensland Almanac & Directory: Miners and Settlers Companion. Brisbane: State Library of Queensland, 1876.

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Dr Dorothy Erickson The question has been asked why is goldfields jewellery of the west coast of Australia is different in appearance, style and iconography from that of the 1850–70s in Victoria and New South Wales, which typically featured large Victorian-type bulla brooches1 while the west coast work of the 1890s–1910 had more affinity to the Aesthetic Movement. The answer is quite obvious: the factors are time, climate and ethnic differences across the continent.

Mining Camp DATE c. 1855–60 D. Tulloch (attributed to) Oil on canvas

Motifs that can most readily identify Australian made work of the mid 19th century are mining tableaux and the unique flora and fauna of the continent.

Sovereign holder and fob chain DATE c. 1900 MAKER AO Kopp | Perth Private Collection

In the 1850s to 1870s the daytime fashion in jewellery was for large brooches pinned high on the costume, at times covering the throat. The great quantities of gold being mined meant the goldsmiths could be generous with their use of it, and according to antique dealer and author Anne Schofield, this is one of the hall marks of Australianmade work of this period.4 The massive

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IMAGE courtesy Dixson Galleries, State Library of NSW, Sydney

In the 19th century Australia was not a unified country. It began as a series of separate colonies founded at different times and under varying circumstances and backgrounds. Whilst colonies on the east coast started as penal settlements in the 18th century, those in Western Australia and South Australia were founded in the 19th century as colonies of free men and women.2 The climatic differences in a country the size of Europe had a further impact on the type of jewellery sold in various places.

The discovery of gold in the hills of California in 1849, and in 1851 on the east coast of Australia at Bathurst, Bendigo and Ballarat, had been timely, as gold was in short supply in Europe due to the exhaustion of the fabled South American mines. Gold seekers and goldsmiths flocked to New South Wales and the newly proclaimed colony of Victoria hoping to make their fortune. Between 1851 and 1853 some 200,000 immigrants flocked to Victoria alone. One of these, Ellen Kean, writing from Ballarat stated: “When gold was first discovered here it was what they call surface gold, that is, it was on the alluvial soil and all the capital a man required was a spade, a tent, some tea and coffee and some biscuits and preserved meat. … They ran mad with luck …”.3 It is therefore not surprising that people started coming from everywhere. The Victorian capital, ‘Marvellous Melbourne’, soon became one of the wealthiest cities in the world. The abundance of the precious metal saw lucky prospectors, and others who profited from the diggings, commission objects to commemorate their good fortune. Due to the fact that the goldsmiths came from all parts of the world, there was no standard hallmarking system. Some omitted marks altogether, some simply used their initials, while others added crowns, lions or other fake British marks.

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8 cm wide brooch presented to the Irish born exotic dancer Lola Montez in 1855 and now in the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra is one such example. (refer to page 57) This shows miners’ implements within a shield supported by a kangaroo and emu – later to become the heraldic animals on the Commonwealth of Australia’s coat of arms. The whole is bordered with grape foliage. Another massive wreath brooch garlanded with mining equipment is in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney. The provenance remains unknown, however an earlier, but similar, mining brooch in the collection was made for Mary Anne Austin from gold mined in Bathurst. The commissioner was her husband, a wealthy former convict and bullion dealer. It depicts a miner winching a bucket of ore to the surface within a foliate cartouche decorated with crossed picks and shovels and a miniature sluice cradle. The brooch remained in the family until presented to the museum in 1954 by Una and Winifred Lane. The Museum’s significance statement for the brooch reads: In May 1851, a few months after Edward Hammond Hargraves had published his discovery of gold, Bathurst shopkeeper Edward Austin arrived in Sydney with a nugget weighing about 225 grams. According to The Sydney Morning Herald (15 May 1851) it created ‘a great sensation’. Austin’s find fanned the excitement that was to shake the colony and create a rush to the Bathurst region. Choosing to remain in Bathurst, Austin made his fortune by providing diggers with credit to buy mining tools and then afterwards purchasing their gold. He commemorated his success with this brooch, which he gave to his wife, Mary Ann. For Austin, the brooch underscored a life of ups and downs. Born Elias Arnstein, a Bavarian Jew, he was apprenticed as a tailor when he went to England in 1831. After only two days in London, he was arrested and sentenced to seven years transportation for stealing a ring and two brooches. The Austin brooch belongs to a group of ‘goldfields’ brooches of a type made exclusively in Australia from local gold between the mid-1850s and the mid-1860s. Being massive and ostentatious, most of these brooches were melted down,

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especially when smaller brooches began to be favoured in the following decades. Some were sold for much-needed cash during the depression of the 1890s. Of the few that have survived, most are not marked and their provenance has long been forgotten.

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Typically, goldfields or mining brooches feature mining equipment on a miniature scale arranged in an oval or rectangular design and worked onto a pin. These tiny mining tools were formed either by sawing or casting, and were then soldered together. The more complex designs incorporated crossed picks and shovels, mattocks, winches, buckets, sluiceboxes, bags of gold, revolvers and small figures of miners turning windlasses, all set within foliate, wreath-like frames.

Mrs Alan MacPherson visiting Melbourne in 1856–57 wrote home:

Goldfields pins and rings were bought by lucky diggers and merchants to commemorate the travails of the goldfields. A brooch, however, was usually made as a present from a lucky digger to his wife, sweetheart or mistress. Although expensive, they were also acquired by visitors to goldfields as souvenirs and ‘proofs of colonial advancement’. Early goldfields jewellery was often made by adventurous immigrant jewellers who, after unsuccessful attempts as miners on the goldfields, set up jewellery shops in gold townships. By the mid-1850s, a range of goldfields brooches and rings could be purchased or commissioned from large city establishments. In the mid nineteenth century the prevailing engrossment with nature led to an intensified interest in the unique flora and fauna of the continent. This, together with the incentive of exhibiting in international exhibitions, saw jewellers, anxious to express their newly acquired Australian identity, commencing to exploit the flora using motifs such as banksia, woody pear, fern and palm tree and fauna such as the kangaroo, wallaby and emu. (Fig. 1) Even lizards and snakes, dingoes, parrots and possums were incorporated into some of the jewellery designs and a distinct idiom was developed. Hogarth & Erichsen in Sydney became particularly adept and set the benchmark for work of this kind (refer to pages 39–51).

The ornaments at present exhibited for sale consist principally of brooches, breast pins, and studs which are really often very prettily executed sometimes with gold mixed with quartz in its native state, but more frequently the fine gold is filigreed and is occasionally relieved by stones also found in the colony … they are really worth getting as proof of colonial advancement … .5

LEFT FIG. 1 Brooch with emu and kangaroo DATE c. 1860 MAKER unknown LENT BY National Gallery of Victoria RIGHT FIG. 2 Locket brooch with emerald DATE c. 1870 MAKER Denis Bros (attributed to) | Melbourne LENT BY Anne Schofield Antiques

Gemstones found in the colonies during this period included sapphire, emerald, topaz, amethyst, citrine, opal, malachite and pearls. Moreton Bay in Queensland was the first known source of local pearls, which were exhibited as early as the 1850s. Commercial pearling soon followed in Western Australia in 1861. A number of brooches with a wreath-like frame dating from the 1870s have reversible central panels with inserted photograph on one side and gold foliage on the other, perhaps set with small emeralds or other gemstones, as is seen in one attributed to Denis Bros, Melbourne. (Fig. 2) The conclusion from examining these and other works held in national collections is that the jewellery made during the New South Wales and Victorian gold rushes was massive in weight, typical of the type of design of the time when gold was once more in plentiful supply and great bulla brooches were fashionable. This is remarkably different from the Western Australian goldfields jewellery which is much simpler in design, although the goldfields

were even richer and the resources more abundant. Fashion played its part in this for there was a forty year time gap from the 1850s to 1890s. A further factor was the climate in Victoria which has a climate more akin to southern England or France whilst Perth, capital of Western Australia, has a more Mediterranean or Californian climate, and Kalgoorlie and other Western Australian goldfields are situated in the dry and dusty desert interior. Jewellery from the east coast probably also reflects the European background of many of the goldsmiths while the west had, and still does, a more dominant British heritage. As previously mentioned, the origin of Western Australia was different from that of the east coast of Australia. The colony of Western Australia, although it later accepted transportation for a period of eighteen years, was not established as a convict settlement, but as one for gentry. Thus the structure of the population in the west was significantly different in outlook and social customs. Those who came as settlers in the first few years were, for the most part, younger sons or daughters of minor country nobility, sons of the clergy, wealthy merchants with ambitions to be landowners and returned officers from the Napoleonic Wars who found half pay and peacetime not to their liking. They brought with them their servants and tradespeople to service their needs. Their ways were those of the country gentry and naturally those attitudes and social morés were transported with them. The social fabric was set in a conservative mould. It was a rural, Antipodean existence

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LEFT FIG. 3 The Hon. David Carnegie ready to set out on one of his exploratory expeditions. State Library of Western Australia 4078P. RIGHT FIG. 4 Hannan’s brooch DATE 1890s MAKER Frank Piaggio | Perth Private Collection PHOTO courtesy Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney by Marinco Kodjanovski

First settled in 1829, the Swan River Colony did not prosper. It was a struggling rural backwater with a tiny population relying mainly on exporting timber, pearls and agricultural products until gold was discovered in the late 1880s. Fortuitously, this was found in payable quantities at a time of worldwide depression, encouraging people with expertise and capital to come to the inhospitable hinterland of the struggling colony. (Fig. 3) The population of the ‘Cinderella’ colony, increased nearly sevenfold during the first twenty years of the gold rushes and young men out for adventure added to the diversity and colour. Lord Percy Douglas (later the Marquess of Queensberry) was seen reciting poetry and collecting money for some worthy cause, while the Hon. David Carnegie and others organized prospecting expeditions. Entrepreneurs, such as the Hon. Mrs Candy, the Duchess of Newcastle’s mother, went about the business of floating mining companies. This meant a rather cosmopolitan clientele for the local goldsmiths, and the repatriation elsewhere of much that they made. This was all happening against the backdrop of great technological and economic change, which the colony was able to use to its advantage. In the period from the 1880s to World War I, the wireless telegraph,

Western Australian mining jewellery was much lighter in weight than that of the earlier east coast rushes for fashions had changed in jewellery and clothing. Sporting jewellery, name brooches, bar brooches and lace pins were the fashion. Despite their diminutive size these small works can be curiously compelling. While their origins were in British fashion and in part evolved from the penchant for sophisticated equipment jewellery to commemorate an occasion, they developed into a separate genre. Distinctive work was made utilizing swans or mining implements combined with nuggets or an arch spelling out the name of the mine, town or occasion. A gold nugget (in white quartz) set in an open pierced-work bar-brooch, the finials reminiscent of the Neo-Gothic designs of English architect William Burges, was a souvenir of one of the many Poseidon gold-mines operating about the turn of the century. It is set with seed pearls and would have been made between 1895 and 1910. The maker has yet to be identified.

RIGHT FIG. 5 Marble Bar windlass brooch MAKER Donovan & Overland | Perth DATE late 1890s 15ct gold | 5.7cm wide COLLECTION The National Gallery of Australia 2010.318 PHOTO courtesy Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney by Marinco Kodjanovski RIGHT FIG. 6 Donnybrook brooch featuring Golden hole DATE c. 1900 Private Collection

Joseph Pearl, about whom little is known, fashioned miniature stamper brooches featuring the ore- crushing batteries, Frank Piaggio, who had arrived from Adelaide c. 1891, registered his design of a parallel pick and shovel with pendant bucket as ‘WA no. 9’, (Fig. 4) and Donovan & Overland, a major wholesaler previously in Queensland, registered its very attractive brooch ‘WA no 13’ featuring a ‘golden hole’, mattock, shovel, windlass and bucket, which is seen under arches bearing the names Leonora, Kalgoorlie (previously Hannan’s), Coolgardie, Malcolm, Donnybrook, Marble Bar and Bullfinch. (Figs. 5 and 6) The ‘golden hole’ surrounded by quartz rocks beneath the windlass was derived from the legendary, or rather infamous, Londonderry strike at Coolgardie. World traveller May Vivienne remarked in her book that she had seen a large block of gleaming white quartz from the Londonderry mine, thickly studded with nuggets.8 The strike hole was sealed over while the principals went to London to raise the finance to develop the mine. However once the money was raised and the mine shaft opened no more gold was found. Was it bad luck or a fraud?9 A gala event in the life of Coolgardie was the International Mining and Industrial Exhibition held there in 1899. By this time gold was bringing in eighty-eight per cent of the colony’s wealth and the exhibition focused on this. Stone and brick buildings were beginning to give Coolgardie an air of elegance. (Fig. 6) The Exhibition Building, opened on 21 March, attracted 55,000 visitors by June, many travelling by train from Perth for this event. Numerous

souvenir brooches were made for this occasion, which explains why Coolgardie is the name that most frequently occurs on the mining brooches. The Larard Brothers who came from Melbourne made some of these mementoes that have the elaborate registration mark used by this firm. The crossed pick and shovel design, ‘W.A.6’, was registered in Western Australia on 17 April 1894. They also registered ‘6N REG’, above ‘29 3 94’, which was the date of registration of the design in Victoria—as ‘Vic. 720’. Whether the latter work was for sale in Western Australia or for a revived Victorian gold field has not been able to be determined however the customs duties levied between the colonies probably meant that those with Victorian marks were designed for sale on the east coast. Another type of commemorative brooch was the Golden Arrow brooch which Dr Victor Streich, the German-born geologist and manager of the Australasia and Australasia North mines who came from South Australia in 1891 commissioned to celebrate an event at the Golden Arrow mine at Broad Arrow. This was a deep company mine, thus the pick, the emblem of the alluvial miner is not incorporated into the design. The brooch, with provenance from the Streich family, dates from the late 1890s when the mine had thirty head of stampers at work. The best known of the Western Australian goldfields jewellers was George Richard Addis who was born in Victoria to a family from Herefordshire. After training, probably in Melbourne but possibly in South Australia

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similar to that of provincial life in England in Jane Austen’s time.6

telephones for general use, trains, trams, motorcars, electric lighting, electric power, cinemas and X-rays were introduced. Cities flowered almost overnight and in a short time the shanty towns and miners’ shacks of the desert turned into ‘fine wide streets, lit with electric light, (and) handsome buildings’7 in which over a hundred goldsmiths were working prior to 1900. The majority of these had a British heritage. Prominent jewellers were George Richard Addis, Charles Band, John Caris, Joseph Pearl, Frank Piaggio and the firms Donovan & Overland and Levinson & Sons who made attractive goldfields jewellery that is recognizable as being Western Australian.

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LEFT FIG. 7 Crowds in front of the Coolgardie International Mining and Industrial Exhibition building 1899 as seen in the Western Mail, Christmas 1899. RIGHT FIG. 8 Amethyst flanked by swans and crescent moons DATE 1895–1905 MAKER attributed to HC May Collection Western Australian Museum PHOTO supplied by Dorothy Erickson

One very popular style of brooch made in Western Australia at this time was the ‘swans and swags’ design of Charles Henry May. May had come out from London in the 1880s to join his uncle, the successful emancipist jeweller Frederick Mason, and became a wholesaler in Perth. (Fig.8) A fine quality amethyst is flanked by swans and crescent moons and beneath is a pendant swan between the swags of chain. Other versions feature a central gold nugget. Other jewellers copied the style, which was seen as a show of support for Western Australia which was reluctant to join the proposed Commonwealth and by 1907 had its first attempt to secede.10 Many of the Western Australian implement brooches have a lot in common with those

from the rushes in South Africa with which they are frequently confused. To a tutored

has many small distinctive flattened placer nuggets incorporated into the piece.

eye, a considerable body of the Western Australian work is readily distinguishable with familiar shaped spades and mattocks. There is, however, another strand of work, usually with pointed shovels or rope, which is more difficult to place and may be Australian or South African. The two rushes were contemporary and the two styles are quite similar. It is most unfortunate that since the works have become desirable collectors’ items, a market in counterfeit pieces has sprung up. More insidious is the practice of adding a Western Australian name to an otherwise dubious pick-and-shovel brooch confusing matters further. Differences are also discernible when comparing work made in South Africa and California in the 1890s. The American work, which is marked with ‘kt’ (the US abbreviation for carat) rather than the British Commonwealth ‘c’ or ‘ct’, is distinguished by elongated shovel handles and almost triangular blades to the shovels. The compositions usually incorporate a panning dish and quite often grapes and vine leaves which are reputed to be characteristic of Black Hills, Dakota work.11 All the examples seen so far have been 14kt. The South African work, which can be 9ct, 15ct or 18ct, is closer in compositional elements to the Australian, and often incorporates rope twisted around the handles and occasionally a diamond on the blade. There is also a similar range thought to have been made in Victoria in the 1890s but no maker’s marks are discernable. North American Klondike and Yukon work is quite different and usually

Australian brooch with malachite, quartz, oxidised copper ore DATE 1890–94 MAKER GR Addis | Launceston | 1890–94 and Kalgoorlie after 1895. The malachite sample is probably from the Mt Lyell copper mines in Tasmania, and may have contained native copper, as it now shows oxidised copper ore in the matrix. Private Collection

From 1901 to 1970, seventy to eighty per cent of Australia’s gold production came from the ‘Golden West’ yet little of the jewellery produced remains in Western Australia. The reasons for this include: the source of the venture capital rarely being Western Australian; many of the presentation pieces made to celebrate the lucky strikes having been sent out of the colony; and much of what was created having met the fate of other jewellery during the Great Depression of the 1930s—it was melted down to obtain much-needed currency. As the wealth departed with the miners and syndicates these souvenirs and gifts are more likely to be found in the miners’ home countries. In recent years a number of pieces have been found in antique shops in the United Kingdom where their provenance and significance to Australians are not known and where they have been valued simply for the metal content, yet when repatriated to Australia have fetched exceedingly high prices. Perhaps there is a chance for a different sort of gold rush – to forgotten corners of United Kingdom attics and return of the objects to Australia. 

NOTES 1

The term bulla is derived from the Latin word bubble and was first used to describe jewellery found in Etruscan burials. It was composed of two domed pieces enclosing an amulet. The term was later used for the circular gold awards given

to Roman soldiers hung as a pendant. It has since morphed into a convenient term for a large brooch which is usually two sided and contains a relic, hair or photograph etc. 2 The colonies federated in 1901 to form the Commonwealth of Australia. 3 Schofield, Anne and Kevin Fahy. Australian Jewellery: 19th and Early 20th Century. Sydney, David Ell Press, 1990, p. 28. 4 Schofield, p. 44. 5 Schofield, p. 34. 6 The nephews of Austen’s first boyfriend and members of her brother’s family were settlers in WA in a quite conservative society. 7 Vivienne, May, Travels in Western Australia: Being a Description of the Various Cities and Towns, Goldfields and Agricultural Districts of that State, Heinemann, London, 1902, pp. 16 and 190. 8 Vivienne, p. 318. 9 See Spake, Austin. Londonderry the Golden Hole. Perth: Hesperian Press, 1991 regarding the Londonderry Saga. 10 Western Australians tried to secede again in the 1930s and the notion was raised again in the 1970s. 11 Personal communication Linda Young, March 2016.

REFERENCES Czernis-Ryl, Eva. Brilliant: Australian Gold and Silver 1851–1950. Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing, 2011. Czernis-Ryl, E. (ed.), Australian gold and silver 1851–1900. Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing 1995. Erickson, Dorothy. Gold and Silversmithing in Western Australia: A History. Perth: University of Western Australia Publishing, 2010. Mitchell, L. “Goldfields jewellery” in Decorative arts and design from the Powerhouse Museum. Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing, 1991. Schofield, Anne and Kevin Fahy. Australian Jewellery: 19th and Early 20th Century. Sydney: David Ell Press, 1990.

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where the family farmed Shire horses and had a transport business, he moved to Tasmania and featured in a colonial exhibition in Launceston in 1891–92. He then moved to Western Australia and set up shop in Boulder in 1893 where he often displayed his noted collection of nuggets as well as his jewellery. The attractive Addis mining and nugget brooches are all in striking contrast to each other. The most notable are in the National Gallery in Canberra and in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. They usually feature the distinctive single sided mattock used on the Western Australian fields, and a number of these also have the sieves used to dry-blow the soil away from the heavier gold. Champagne was reputed to be cheaper than water in the early days on these goldfields and washing in a cradle was not economically possible.

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President of the Senate’s ring

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 This 18 ct gold Gentleman’s signet ring is set with a bloodstone (chalcedony), intaglio engraved: ‘The President of the Senate/Advance Australia’, with a knight on horseback before a sunburst. The crest on the ring is not registered with the College of Arms. Sir Richard Chaffey Baker, K.C.M.G., C.M.G., QC, was the first South Australian-born member of Colonial Legislature, the first native-born Minister of the Crown and the first President of the Australian Senate. That Sir Richard Baker was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1864, MA 1871) and that he was a staunch Anglican lends itself to the presence of the knight bearing a shield emblazoned with the Union flag. His passion for a federated Australia could explain the ‘Advance Australia’ words included on the crest. The ‘sunburst’ is a symbol of the Australian sky and is featured on the Australian Army badge. All these are great and powerful symbols representing Baker’s life. This ring is the only known piece of jewellery specifically crafted for a ‘Founding Father of Australian Federation’. The significance of Baker can be summed up by his appointments: • First South Australian-born member of Colonial Legislature • First native-born Minister of the Crown • 1877 First native-born person elected to South Australian Legislative Council • Member Federal Conventions 1891 and 1897–98 • Elected Senator for South Australia in the first Australian Senate; 1901 • First President of the Australian Senate • Represented Australia at the Delhi Durbar in India 1903 • Director Elder Smith & Co • Director Wallaroo & Moonta Mining & Smelting • Chairman South Australian Jockey Club • President Royal Agricultural Society of SA • Board member Adelaide Botanic Gardens

The ring was crafted by Louis H Suhard, who was apprenticed to Leopold Wagner of Melbourne in 1872, and moved to Adelaide in 1884 to establish his own business. Trevor Hancock

Referenced from the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

DATE 1901 MAKER Louis Suhard | Adelaide LENT BY Trevor Hancock

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• Trustee Savings Bank of South Australia

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DATE c. 1890 MAKER possibly William Lamborn, senior or junior | Melbourne LENT BY Trevor Kennedy PHOTO John McRae

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Gentleman’s signet ring

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 Stamped WL and flanked by crowns in the inside of the band, this ring could be from William Lamborn who traded under Lamborn & Wagner 1855, then as Lamborn Wagner and Clark from 1865–67, and Lamborn & Wagner again until 1884. It is possible he made this ring alone or while working with his son Henry at Lamborn Bros, before departing for Perth in 1886 (and dying there in 1897) or perhaps his son William Lamborn, who was part of the business from 1886–1926, fashioned it and stamped it with his own initials. The use of mining implement motifs in the shield below the banner inscribed AUSTRALIA, and a hanging sheep place it as a souvenir of the nation, indicating it was indeed made toward the end of the century when national pride was at its height. Custodial records however indicate the ring was made between 1885–87. It is unclear how this was arrived at.

18 or 22ct gold. An equivalent system was not formally adopted in Australia at the time as no formal hallmarking was required, but increasingly jewellers adopted their own marks and adapted systems to ensure the integrity of their brands and maintain quality standards. Marks were not registered until after federation. Interestingly, we have another very different ring in the exhibition with the same stamps, and at time of writing, a private collector with a signet ring with BENDIGO on the shield and WL on the inside of the band has come forward. It will be interesting to see if they are the same stamps and we can finally attribute the mystery maker.

Reymond, M 2014, ‘Gold Rush jewellers of Melbourne and Dunedin’, Australiana Magazine, Nov, pp. 4–12.

The stamped crowns on the inside of the band were symbols from the British hallmarking system and possibly denoted

MAKER unknown | Australia LENT BY Trevor Kennedy

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PHOTO John McRae

Gold brooch map of Austr alia The goldfields of Western Australia provided great wealth for the colony, which precipitated it joining the other five British self-governing colonies to form a federated Australia in 1901. New Zealand and Fiji were originally part of the process, but declined in joining the initiative which resulted in the Commonwealth of Australia, where the Constitution of Australia came into being on 1 January 1901. The individual colonies became the states shown on the map. Gold brooches in the shape of Australia rose to popularity after Federation in 1901. Jewellery at the time of federation reflected a pride in Australian identity and the federated states, making maps of federated Australia a popular motif for brooches. This particular brooch is missing Tasmania, however many map brooches dangled Tasmania from the main brooch with fine chain-links. Boomerangs, kangaroos, wishbones, koalas and kookaburras all features on a range of gold jewellery from Federation onwards, reflecting a sense of national pride in our endemic emblems. While many were mass-produced, some fine examples by leading jewellers survive.

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DATE early 20C

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Souvenirs of global gold seeking: goldfields jewellery of the 19th Century

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Dr Linda Young

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The peculiar form of the gold digger brooch spread from Australia to goldfields around the world at the turn of the twentieth century, a piece of cultural baggage accompanying the cohort of globe-trotting prospectors. The history and chronology of this design diaspora are not yet certain, but research for this exhibition has filled out knowledge of some previously unknown aspects. The West Australian pick and shovel brooch design appears to have travelled to the Alaska (USA)-Yukon (Canada) rush of 1896–99 (also known as the Klondike rush). Similar motifs employed on cheaper, souvenir-style jewellery such as pendant or fob medallions made an appearance soon after in a mass-produced genre of pick and shovel brooches in the USA, discussed below. Meanwhile, pick and shovel brooches closely related to the typical Westralian form emerged in South Africa, probably via the manufacturing jewellery workshops of London and Birmingham. The British-made brooch type is often very close to the West Australian original, and even experts admit to uncertainty in distinguishing some cases. Predominantly but not invariably, the latter form sets the heads of pick and shovel at the same end, like the later Westralian brooches. A miniature bucket hangs from the crossing, which is marked with a small nugget (or pseudonugget blob of gold) and a twist of gold wire. A few tiny pieces of gold perch on the shovel blade and the pick head. Trade catalogues show a few variations: a solo shovel, sometimes a solo pick.

gold-getting. This is surely the source of the power of the pick and shovel motif: it asserts the dignity of the labour that produces irrefutable profit. It makes the pick and shovel brooch a tiny statement of triumph.

Such brooches are sometimes stamped or engraved on the shovel blade: ‘South Africa’ (fig. 1), or ‘Traansval’. One is known marked ‘Ballarat’. This implies that a standard design could be customised by Birmingham or London manufacturers for retail sale in the distant corners of the Empire. The English manufacturing companies also produced miniature pick and shovel emblems for scarf and tie pins, in the same genre as pins with horse racing, fox hunting and golfing motifs. The contrast between the motifs of aristocratic sports and manual labour in search of gold remains startling.

The West Australian pick and shovel brooch design appears to have travelled the other way round the world to the Alaska (USA)-Yukon (Canada) rush of 1896–99 (also known as the Klondike rush). A handful of Westralian-style pick and shovel brooches in both crossed and parallel forms, has been observed in online selling sites. They were noted on account of apparent or suggestive provenances to the Klondike rush. One of these shared a feature of the next group to be discussed, a die-stamped banner proclaiming ‘Alaska’, indicating a US connection.

It is likely that the tiepin-sized pick and shovel emblems were imported by a South African jeweller to make a nationalist goldfields brooch form: a gold Kruger pond (pound), the size of an English sovereign and the same fineness, enclosed by a pair of small pick-and-shovels. This form is scarce by comparison with the West Australian-derived, Englishmanufactured pick and shovel. Kruger ponds and half-ponds were a proud anti-British statement in the tense politics between the Boer (Dutch) South African Republic and the neighbouring (British) Cape Colony, which erupted into the second Anglo-Boer War in 1899–1902. Kruger ponds were quite frequently mounted as more or less decorative brooches (fig. 2), following an English tradition of doing the same to gold sovereigns. A gold coin brooch can be said to symbolise prosperity (on a modest scale to more lavish jewellery), but the addition of picks and shovels reorients its meaning explicitly to

FIG. 1 If this pick and shovel brooch were not branded ‘South Africa’, it would be hard to distinguish from many sold in Australia around the turn of the 1900s. Private Collection. FIG. 2 A self-assured statement of South African Boer nationalism funded by golden productivity: a Kruger pond framed by the ubiquitous pick and shovel motif. Private Collection.

Negative evidence can never be conclusive, but many years of research by several parties can testify to absence where evidence might be expected to be found. American jewellery experts agree that there was no midnineteenth century Californian expression of goldfields jewellery as known in NSW, Victoria or Western Australia. Yet Californian gold was certainly worked in conventional forms by San Francisco jewellers in the 1850s, as illustrated in Martha Gandy Fales’s Jewelry in America (1995). However, more frequent than brooches composed of tools, it is important to note a distinctive Alaska-Yukon style of jewellery decoration: a textured surface of tiny nuggets, applied to bar, crescent and annular brooches. Sometimes the textured gold pieces suffice in themselves; sometimes they surround a local polished stone; and

the occasional digger tools or maple leaf appears as a central motif. Contemporary Alaskan jewellers continue to work in the tiny nugget tradition with rings, watch straps and earrings (for brooches are now out of fashion), along with larger nuggets as pendants, earrings and linked necklaces (not many men need watch chains these days). Google ‘Alaska jewellery’ to find examples. Wedding bands of tiny nuggets with box edges are known as ‘sluice box rings’, commemorating the long wooden troughs in which paydirt was rinsed and shaken to locate gold. Whether this design dates to the gold rush era is unresolved. But the pick and shovel motif had not disappeared. By the very early years of the 1900s, two distinctive forms of massproduced pick and shovel brooches emerged respectively in the United Kingdom and the United States. Specific manufacturers have not yet been identified, so this story doesn’t yet have a conclusion. The American brooch type consists of more attenuated tools with longer handles than the Western Australian items (figs. 3–4). They are connected by short sidebars set with a triplet of tiny nuggets; a minute nugget often sits on the blade of the shovel and the point of the pick; and the whole features a prominent central gold pan, which may contain a wash of little nuggets, or sometimes a windlass or cradle. The pan frequently carries a die-stamped banner with a goldfield name: Alaska, Yukon, Goldfield (NV), even California (though long postdating the 1849 rush). One often-seen variation replaces the nugget sidebars with grape leaves

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Part 3: The global journey of the pick and shovel brooch

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The large gold pan backed by small crossed pick and shovel also emerged as a motif on the genre of sterling silver souvenir spoons that became popular collectables in the United States from the 1890s to the 1910s. It seems likely (but is yet to be conclusively determined) that the American pick and shovel brooch was produced by the spoon manufacturers.

FIG. 3 The tiny nuggets decorating the characteristic of Alaska-Yukon goldfields jewellery and it is marked J.D. Sale, which is in the Yukon. Perhaps the sheer sentiment of this unlikely design preserved it since the 1890s. Private Collection. FIG. 4 This more attenuated pick and shovel brooch displays the basic characteristics of distinctive Western American manufacture. The mule loaded with prospector’s gear is a common motif in 1890s imagery of gold seeking. The multicoloured gold vine leaves indicate this brooch was made in the Black Hills region of South Dakota. Private Collection

Though not yet fully documented, it seems that the iconographic journey of the pick and shovel motif as a form of jewellery around the gold rushes of the nineteenth-century world began in colonial Victoria, perhaps in Ballarat, with the great figurative brooches. In the Australian context, digger brooches have a distinctly subversive aura, as a kind of anti-heroic jewellery that proclaimed the virtue of manual labour in the most glamorous of golden materials. The idea contains an appealingly Australian challenge to the standards of the British world—another dimension of the infamous ‘upside-down’ nature of the antipodes. Christmas arrived in summer; trees shed bark rather than leaves; and (a rare, odd) genre of jewellery celebrated hard labour rather than luxury.

The pick and shovel motif in brooch form evidently contained enough meaning to reproduce it on subsequent goldfields too, even if it became commodified, massproduced and eventually debased by the American souvenir spoon craze of the turn of the twentieth century. No other industry powered by individual labour with the most basic of tools has ever produced such worker-inspired jewellery. In this, pick and shovel brooches defy conventional values to constitute a unique statement of the power and nobility of labour. 

REFERENCES: Eva Czernis-Ryl (ed.), Brilliant: Australian Gold and Silver 1851–1950, Sydney, Powerhouse Museum, 2011. Dorothy Erickson, Gold and Silversmithing in Western Australia: A History, Perth, University of WA Press, 2010. Martha Gandy Fales, Jewelry in America, 1600–1900, Woodbridge, Suffolk, U.K. : Antique Collectors’ Club, 1995. Peter Hinks, Victorian Jewellery: A complete compendium, London, Studio Editions, 1992. Anne Schofield and Kevin Fahy, Australian Jewellery: 19th and early 20th Century, Sydney, David Ell Press, 1990. Lucy Sussex (ed.), The Fortunes of Mary Fortune, Penguin, Ringwood, 1989. Linda Young, ‘Westralian Digger Brooches: Souvenirs of a technology’, Technology and Culture 28/1, January 1987. Linda Young, ‘Subversive jewellery’, ReCollections 7/1, 2012: http://recollections.nma.gov.au/issues/ volume_7_number_1/papers/subversive_ jewellery.

DATE c. 1900 MAKER unknown | Alaska | U.S Private Collection

Alask an goldfields brooch The repetition of design elements is a characteristic of this genre of brooch from North America during the last gold rushes of the century. Like their Western Australian counterparts, many have identifying place names like this Alaskan example, which has native gold nuggets applied, presumably from a lucky prospector who had them attached to a stock standard selection of pre made elements. The Klondike gold rush route to Canada route went through Alaska primarily at Skagway or up the Yukon River. It was responsible for one of the largest voluntary mass movements of people in history, and some of the argonauts went on to discover gold in Alaska. The White Pass Trail used by stampeders in 1897–99 was the alternative and apparently easier route to the Klondike in comparison to the Chilkoot Trail. It proved to be a nightmare for many during the first winter, becoming clogged with mud during the wet autumn months, making the trail virtually impassable. People and their pack animals became stuck along the trail and many ran out of supplies, starving and succumbing to disease. It is estimated that 3000 horses died along the trail, earning it the nickname The Dead Horse Trail.

National Park Service 2016, National Historical Park Alaska, <http://www.nps.gov>.

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and curly scrolls, often in three colours of gold, which pick up a characteristic motif of Black Hills (South Dakota) goldveined quartz jewellery of the 1870s.

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DATE c. 1900 MAKER unknown | Cripple Creek | Colorado

Goldfields brooch with prospector’s mule in pan

Private Collection

On the 20th of October, 1890, Robert Womack discovered a rich ore at Cripple Creek and the last great Colorado gold rush began. Thousands of prospectors flocked to the region, and one of the largest gold strikes in history followed. Many miners of the Cripple Creek region joined a miners’ union. The members had a history of violence. After release from a prolonged stay in jail for taking over a mine (with force) that was being worked by scabs, the miners went to Butte, where they joined with other mining organizations to found ‘a grand federation of underground workers throughout the Western states’ which was called the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) in 1892. The violent nature of the organization in part stemmed from frustration “these adventurous characters, going out into a new country...where it would seem that at last all men would stand on equal footing, have suddenly discovered that amid these primitive surroundings the modern industrial system is... found at its worst.” (Anthony 1997, p. 104)

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

The mine owners insisted that miners work ten hours a day, instead of eight or nine, with no increase in pay. So the union miners went

DATE c. 1890 MAKER unknown | probably Colorado Private Collection

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on strike; beatings and dynamiting of mine property ensued, deterring the mine owners to secure any non-union labour. After seven weeks, owners agreed to meet with union leaders and returned the worker’s conditions prior to the strike. The WFM won its first strike at Cripple Creek, in 1894, and in doing so, gained a reputation as a “violent, lawless organization”. The WFM’s second strike two years later, however, was not such a success. The miners left their jobs, including the pumps, causing the mines to flood. The mine owners, already in trouble from the falling price of silver, imported scabs to keep the mines running. By 1903, the allegiance of the state government had shifted and Governor James Peabody sent the Colorado National Guard into Cripple Creek. This precipitated the Colorado Labor Wars, a struggle that took many lives. The loaded mule in the centre of this brooch may refer to the labour union movement.

Anthony, L 1997, Big Trouble, Simon & Schuster, New York, pp. 103–104. Ubbelohde, C and Benson, M 1982, A Colorado History, Pruett Publishing Company Suggs, G Jr. 1972, Colorado’s War on Militant Unionism: James H. Peabody and the Western Federation of Miners, Wayne State University Press.

Goldfields brooch with mule This little beast of burden carries a swag and supplies across rocky ground. The nuggets between the pick and shovel balance the delightful composition.

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Goldfields brooch with maple leaf and applied nuggets

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The maple leaf on this brooch is a giveaway that it was manufactured as a souvenir from goldfields in Canada, and is similar to other Klondike / Yukon style brooches recorded. Although the mining conditions were very different, other aspects of the Canadian rushes have parallels with Australian history. The discovery of gold in the Yukon in 1896 led to a stampede to the Klondike region between 1897 and 1899. The Klondike gold rush solidified the public’s image of the North as more than a barren wasteland and left a body of literature that has popularized and romanticized the Yukon.

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

The stampede was an epic journey during which numerous challenges had to be met, and countless obstacles overcome. First, there was the harrowing voyage north along the Pacific coast from coastal cities, which ended upon arrival at the coastal Alaskan ports of Haines, Skagway and Dyea. Skagway was a lawless town run by the notorious Soapy Smith and his band of thieves. Images of a never-ending stream of men labouring up the icy steps of the final ascent to the Chilkoot Pass summit have come to symbolize the challenges not just of the trail to the Klondike, but of life itself. Thousands, burdened by heavy loads, made the ascent across the rocky summit 30 or 40 times in order to haul the tonne of supplies (enough to last a prospector for a year) that the North West Mounted Police required each stampeder to bring with him.

DATE c. 1900 MAKER J.D Sale | Dawson, Yukon | Canada Private Collection

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The stampeders laboured over a trail clogged with ice, snow and people. They endured or perished from avalanches, drowning, disease, exhaustion, failure and heartbreak. By the time the stampeders arrived in late autumn, it was too late to turn around due to the fast onset of winter. Each man (there were few women in Dawson at first) had to build shelter and then endure seven months of cold, darkness, disease, isolation and monotony. For those lucky enough to find gold, nothing was beyond limits. Many successful prospectors lived extravagantly. For the majority, however, life was about survival and their existence was tedious. The gold rush brought tremendous upheaval and disenfranchisement for the people indigenous to the region. The Han people of the Yukon valley were pushed aside and marginalized. Only a century later, as a result of land claim settlements have the Tr’ondëk Hwech’in found redress and selfgovernance. (Text adapted from Canadian Encyclopaedia, 2016)

Historica Canada, n.d. < http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/>

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MAKER unknown | Goldfield | Nevada | U.S

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Private Collection

Goldfields brooch – Nevada Typical of other North American-style brooches with crossed pick and shovel, this brooch has tendril and leaf motifs applied which appear identical to several other examples viewed although much cruder. The components may have been produced and distributed by a manufacturer and assembled by local jewellers. The pan is stamped GOLDFIELD, named from the town where gold was actively mined from 1903–40. Soon after mining on an extensive scale began, the miners organized themselves as a local branch of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), which included many workers other than miners. Serious differences arose between members and mine owners resulting in strikes in December 1906 and January 1907 for higher wages. It is marked with star-shaped cartouche in triangle then 14K, North American-style curved pin which indicates it is from the same maker as the brooch with the log cabin featured on page 151.

DATE c. 1910 MAKER unknown | probably Dakota, U.S. Private Collection

Goldfields brooch with log cabin Featuring cross pick and shovel with gold pan and a log cabin, this brooch is marked with star shaped cartouche in triangle then 14K, and has a North American style curved pin. The leaves are typical of designs from Black Hills, Dakota. They are also identical to the leaves on the Goldfield brooch from Nevada on page 145. The tale of first gold discovery in the Black Hills was thrown into question in 1887 by the discovery of what has become known as the Thoen Stone. Discovered by Louis Thoen on the slopes of Lookout Mountain, the stone purports to be the last testament of Ezra Kind who, along with six others, entered the Black Hills in 1833 (at a time when whites were forbidden by law and treaty from entering the area), “got all the gold we could carry” in June 1834, and were subsequently “killed by Indians beyond the high hill”. While it may seem unlikely that someone who has “lost my gun and nothing to eat and Indians hunting me” would take the time to carve his story in sandstone, there is corroborating historical evidence for the Ezra Kind party.

Thomson, F 1966, The Thoen Stone, A Saga of the Black Hills, Harlo Press.

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DATE c. 1910

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DATE c. 1890 MAKER unknown | South Africa Private Collection

Tr ansva al goldfields brooch with ruby

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 In 1886 an Australian miner named George Harrison was prospecting in Transvaal (now South Africa) and discovered gold. Unaware his find was one of the richest deposits in the world, Harrison sold his stake for £10. Prospectors from all over the world flooded the region, spawning the new town of Johannesburg, which within months held 100,000 people. Prior to 1886 it had been a poor, struggling Boer republic, but by 1896 it was the richest gold mining area in the world, producing 2.23 times the amount of gold from the rest of the world combined and transforming southern Africa forever.

Callinicos, L 1980, Gold and Workers 1886–1924 A People’s History of South Africa, vol 1, Ravan Press, Johannesburg.

MAKER unknown | South Africa

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

Private Collection – on loan from The Gold Museum | Ballarat

Boer war memorial Brooch In the 1870s the crushing of the Zulus by the British was a blessing for the Transvaal Boers as they no longer required military support for protection and promptly declared their independence from the Empire. The British forces withdrew, by de facto recognising the Transvaal’s independence. British and Cape politicians soon regretted this when enormous gold deposits were discovered. The discovery of gold transformed the fortunes of South Africa, and not always for the best. The Cape Colony politicians rued their geological misfortune and went so far as to try to provoke the Boer Republics to try and find an excuse for annexing them. Powerful forces were interested in appropriating these huge gold deposits for themselves. Imperialists made clear their intentions for adding Transvaal and the Orange Free State to the Empire. By 1899, the Boer Republics concluded that their best

chance of, not to avoiding being annexed was to launch a pre-emptive strike into parts of the Cape Colony, Bechuanaland and Natal. The initial military defeat of the Republics meant that the war became a long, drawnout guerrilla phase for two years. The human and physical costs were enormous. A small localised problem became a huge international embarrassment for the British. The determination and skill of the Boers took all by surprise and forced the British Army to seriously question its tactics and approach to modern warfare. The ultimate consequence of the war would be the Union of South Africa. In 1910, this was formalised further with the Union of South Africa between the Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The brooch represents a victory over British imperialism, in the face of greed over gold.

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DATE c. 1900–10

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Contributor biogr aphies ACKNOWLEDGMENTS List of exhibition jewellery MAKER unknown | South Africa

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Private Collection

Two brooches – South African Compare these two identical brooches closely. One is in original condition, while the other has been altered. The near complete removal of the embossed text South Africa and slight modification of the shovel blade may indicate a deliberate attempt to hide the origins of this brooch. Australian brooches are often indistinguishable from South African models. However this one, passed off as an Australian brooch, has vestiges of the original stamping on the verso of the shovel, making it undoubtedly from the same source as the one marked South Africa. The message here is buyer beware!

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DATE c. 1900

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Contributor biogr aphies

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CASH BROWN

AMBER EVANGELISTA

Cash Brown is a curator, conservator and artist who currently lives and works in Victoria. With a bachelor of Fine Arts and a Masters in Cultural Materials Conservation, Brown is dedicated to the preservation and presentation of cultural materials, providing a bridge between objects and audiences through exhibitions, events and texts. As an artist she has had ten solo and more than 130 group exhibitions, and is an avid traveller, obsessed with museums and galleries wherever she goes.

Amber Evangelista is a researcher and emerging professional within the Museums sector. She has provided research for the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV), and assisted with PROV exhibitions and multimedia projects at the Old Treasury Building. She currently manages site operations and public programs for two of the National Trust of Australia’s (Victoria) house museums; Como House & Gardens and Labassa. As well as contributing to the 19th Century Bling catalogue, Amber has worked with curator Cash Brown to provide research into the intimate social histories surrounding colonial gold jewellery.

With generous seed funding from The Ian Potter Foundation, The Gordon Darling Foundation, Federation University and the Victorian State Government this ambitious project has come to life.

Trevor Kennedy must be congratulated for amassing such a wonderful collection for us to raid. His passion for all things Australian is contagious, and his generosity in sharing has helped shape this exhibition immensely.

The exhibition and texts would not be possible without the pioneering work done by Anne Schofield and the late Kevin Fahy, whose book Australian Jewellery, 19th and Early 20th Century and Cavill, Cocks and Grace 1992, Australian Jewellers and Silversmiths – Makers & Marks. Both of these wonderful texts have become the go to references for all things goldfields bling.

Thank you to Brett Dunlop, the Director of Sovereign Hills Museums association for partnering with M.A.D.E. Elizabeth Marsden, Collections Manager for The Sovereign Hill Museums Association went above and beyond the call of duty in helping, provide relevant content from their expansive collection.

KATRINA BANYAI Katrina Banyai is an independent Art Historian and Educator specialising in Australian Decorative Arts. She holds a Masters in Art History and Curatorship from the Australian National University and has worked across the Museum and Education sectors including The National Gallery of Australia. Her most recent research investigates Gold and Silversmithing on the Queensland goldfields in the Nineteenth century.

TREVOR HANCOCK Trevor Hancock is an antique dealer in Perth. For the past ten years he has specialised in Australian colonial jewellery with clients including major state and national collecting institutions.

DR LINDA YOUNG DR DOROTHY ERICKSON

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Dorothy Erickson is an Australian jeweller and historian who lives in Perth, Western Australia. She has exhibited internationally since 1979 with some 40 solo exhibitions. Her work is in prestigious museums around the world. She is also an art critic and writer on art, crafts and design with a considerable body of published essays and articles so when, through illness, she was unable to continue jewellery for a time in the 1980s she undertook a PhD in Art History to add to her teaching, art and design degrees. She has since published four books, Art and Design in Western Australia: Perth Technical College 1900–2000, A Joy Forever: The Story of Kings Park and Botanic Garden, Gold and Silversmithing in Western Australia: A History and Inspired by Light and Land: Designers and Makers in Western Australia 1829–1969. Her Welsh maternal great great grandmother Phoebe Morgan and English great great grandfather Frederick Wheeler were on the Victorian diggings at Bendigo in the 1850s while her Swedish paternal grandfather John Erickson had a gold mine at Broad Arrow in Western Australia in the 1890s so she has family links to both gold rushes.

Dr Young is a Senior Lecturer In Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies at Deakin University. She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Education, Master of Arts, Bachelor of Science in Optometry, Master of Science (Optometry) and a Doctor of Philosophy. Young is the Course Director, Cultural Heritage & Museum Studies; and teaches subjects including Traditional Buildings, The Museum: Context and Issues, Heritage & Museums: Strategy and Marketing, Heritage & Museums: Operational Issues and Exhibitions.

Perhaps unwittingly, Eva Czernis-Ryl, the curator of Decorative Arts at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences has been a great contributor, having published two excellent books on the topic which have informed much of this exhibition. Her work, along with texts from the Gold and Civilization book which accompanied the exhibition of the same name at the National Museum in Canberra in 2001, by contributors John McPhee and John Wade have been great resources. John Wade is also to be acknowledged greatly for networking among collectors on our behalf through his role as Editor of Australiana, the wonderful publication put out quarterly since the early 1980’s by the Australiana Society. Other contributors to that publication, including Michel Reymond, have been terribly helpful with sage advice and the provision of recent independent research. Our main contributors Dr Dorothy Erickson, Dr Linda Young and Katrina Banyai have been exceptionally generous with their time, support, expertise and at times lively correspondence. Their contributions to the field are exceptional and we are thrilled to be able to present their papers. Again, their sharing natures and networks have assisted greatly in building Bling. Dr Dorothy Erickson also provided invaluable, tireless editorial support. The feature on Lola Montez would not have been possible without the passion and dedication of Amber Evangelista, who has assisted the curatorial and editorial process from the beginning. Trevor Hancock can be singled out for his good-natured generosity on loaning precious objects and providing fascinating supporting texts. His enthusiasm for the exhibition and this catalogue has been wonderful, and it would not have been possible to produce without his networks and advice.

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There are many anonymous private collectors who have been exceptional with their support, thankyou. Photographers John McRae and Peta North worked under less than ideal conditions at very short notice to document many of the pieces shown, while Sam Brown has provided excellent digital manipulation and design skills helping shape the overall exhibition identity. Julia Park, the catalogue designer not only put up with ever-expanding content, and missed deadlines, she also provided the brains behind the wonderful layout and design. Thank you also to Collections staff from all lending institutions including the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, The National Gallery of Victoria, Buda Historic Home and Garden, Arts Centre Melbourne, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Gold Museum, Ballarat, and all of the librarians who have assisted us, especially from the State Library of Victoria. Special thanks to Gilly Burrough (nee Snell) for allowing us to use images from her great great grandfather E Snell’s sketchbook. Finally, the wonderful team at M.A.D.E who have all had input, thank you Mitchell McAlpine, Luke Grimes, Sarah Masters, Zoe Bradshaw, Carrie Ann Batson, Merri-Lyn Clark, Tanya Dickens, Lucinda Wilson, Amy Borrell, Jude Fahey, Brigid Corcoran and the Saltbush Kitchen team. This exhibition would not have been possible without the inspired conversation M.A.D.E Director Jane Smith had with Cordell Kent, after her visit to the State Library of Victoria, and her unwavering belief in the project. 

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

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List of exhibition jewellery

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34. Goldfields bar brooch | c. 1880–1900 | Larard Bros, Melbourne | Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney

2.  Goldfields pendant | c. 1855–65 | unknown, possibly Geelong | Trevor Hancock

19.  Australian gold locket | c. 1875 | Henry Steiner, Adelaide | Anne Schofield Antiques

3.  Australian colonial gold brooch | c. 1854–61 | Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. Sydney (attributed) | Trevor Hancock

20.  Rare gold ring with emu and kangaroo | c. 1860 | Draeger and Kellinghausen | Anne Schofield Antiques

35.  Openwork gold brooch with emerald | c. 1860 | unknown, Australia | Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney

4.  Silver threepenny | 1860 | Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. Sydney | Trevor Hancock

21.  Early goldfields earrings | c. 1855 | unknown, Ballarat | Private Collection | Dot Wickham

5.  Goldfields brooch with leafy border | c. 1853 | unknown, Victoria, possibly Geelong | Trevor Hancock

22.  Ballarat goldfields brooch | c. 1855–60 | unknown, possibly in Ballarat | Private Collection

38.  Jewel beetle ear pendants and necklace | late 19C | probably Stewart Dawson, Perth | Private Collection

23.  Ballarat gentleman’s signet ring | 1854 | Woollett and Wagner, Melbourne | Private Collection

39.  Oval polished marble brooch | c. 1870 | Edward Fischer, Geelong | Private Collection

24.  Gold locket brooch with ambrotype | c. 1860 | unknown, Australia | Private Collection

40. Bar brooch with cowries, scrolls and leaves | c. 1885 | Edward Fischer, Geelong | Private Collection

9. Gold and garnet ear pendants with buckle motif | c. 1870 | Lamborn & Wagner, Melbourne (attributed) | Trevor Hancock

27.  Goldfields nugget brooch with swans | c. 1880s | unknown, Western Australia | Private Collection

10.  Gold ear pendants with cut rubies | c. 1870 | unknown, Australia | Trevor Hancock

28. Pocket watch, Lyalls Ltd, Mosman Street Charters Towers | c. 1890 | Lyalls Ltd, Charters Towers, Queensland | Charters Towers Archives

11.  Gold ear pendants with vine tendrils | c. 1870 | unknown, Australia | Trevor Hancock

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

NAME OF PIECE | DATE MADE | MAKER | LENDER |  = IN CATALOGUE

1.  Australian colonial gentleman’s dress ring | c. 1852–55 | Charles Jones, Hobart | Trevor Hancock

29.  Charters Towers Athletic Club Sports District Cup won by James Carroll | 1884 | Christian Dietz, Charters Towers, Queensland | Charters Towers Archives

30. Goldfields bar brooch | c. 1898 | unknown, Fremantle, Western Australia | Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney

46.  Large oval cameo with gold frame and tassels | 1874-1878 | David Rosenthal & Co, Melbourne | Private Collection

31. Fabric, wood and metal box for bar brooch | c. 1898 | unknown, Fremantle, Western Australia | Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney

47.  Australiana reversible gold and silver brooch with glass dome and cameo | c. 1885 | Brunkhorst, Adelaide | Private Collection

48.  Glass-fronted watch in original box | c. 1880 | Key marked A.L Brunkhorst, Adelaide, watch marked Muret, Geneve, inside watch marked Steiner, Swivel marked D.H& Co. | Private Collection

65.  Transvaal goldfields brooch with red stone | c. 1900 | unknown, South Africa | Private Collection

49.  Shark-tooth fob chain | c. 1893–1912 | Thomas Scanlan, Perth | Private Collection

66.  Goldfields brooch with miner | c. 1860 | unknown, Australia | Private Collection

82.  Cameo on flat gold rectangular shield | c. 1895 | A.O. Kopp, Perth | Private Collection

99. Gold bar brooch with swallow | c. 1900 | unknown, Australia | Jane Smith

119.  Operculum and gold brooch | c. 1870 | unknown, Australia | Trevor Kennedy

83.  Australian goldfields brooch with sieve | c. 1900 | unknown, probably Gympie, Queensland | Private Collection

100. Gold bar brooch with scrolls | c. 1900 | Willis & Co | Jane Smith

120. Operculum cufflinks | c. 1870 | unknown, Australia | Trevor Kennedy

16 APRIL – 4 JULY 2016

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154. Emu and kangaroo oval brooch | c. 1855 | unknown, Australia | Trevor Kennedy

138. Chain with nuggets, 9ct | unknown | unknown | Trevor Kennedy

155. Pick and shovel brooch in Hardy Bros box | late 19C | Hardy Bros, Sydney | Trevor Kennedy

139. Quartz fob chain | mid 19C –early 20C | unknown, Australia or California? | Trevor Kennedy

156.  Gold locket/ pendant with a kangaroo and an emu beneath a cabbage palm | c.1860 | possibly Hogarth, Erichsen & Co., Sydney | Trevor Kennedy

158. Gold fob seal with kangaroo set with greenstone and engraved MR | mid 19 C | unknown, Australia | Trevor Kennedy

177. Arrow brooch | c. 1890 | Edward Ficher, Geelong | National Gallery of Victoria

159. Gold locket brooch with dried flowers | c. 1870 | unknown, Australia | Trevor Kennedy

178. Gold emu and kangaroo earrings | c. 1860 | Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. (attributed), Sydney | Trevor Kennedy

163. Lucknow cross pendant | 1897 | unknown, probably Bathurst, NSW | Trevor Kennedy

182.  Brooch with emu and kangaroo | c. 1860 | unknown, Australia | National Gallery of Victoria

148.  Amethyst brooch with pearls | c. 1880 | Henry Steiner, Adelaide | Trevor Kennedy

164. Gold locket brooch with leaves holding a nugget | c. 1870 | Christian Ludwig Qwist, Sydney | Trevor Kennedy

183. The Geelong Gold Cup | 1879 | Edward Fischer, Geelong | National Gallery of Victoria

149. Closed work locket brooch with emu and kangaroo | c. 1855 | Hogarth, Erichsen & Co, Sydney (attributed) | Trevor Kennedy

165. Gold ring with hands presenting a nugget | mid – late 19C | unknown - stamped with crown WL crown | Trevor Kennedy

150.  Early miner’s brooch with bare branches and mining tools | c. 1855 | unknown, probably Victoria | Trevor Kennedy

166. Round gold openwork brooch with kangaroo | c. 1865 | unknown, Australian | Trevor Kennedy

147.  Gold map of Australia brooch | early 20 C | unknown, Australia | Trevor Kennedy

19TH CENTURY BLING | GOLDFIELDS JEWELLERY

157. Gold fob seal with emu, kangaroo and palm tree set with bloodstone | c. 1840 | unknown, Australia | Trevor Kennedy

171. Ballarat mayoral chains | JT Sleep, Ballarat | City of Ballarat

184. The Geelong Gold Cup | 1880 | Edward Fischer, Geelong | National Gallery of Victoria

INSIDE BACK COVER Sleeping child

185. Gold brooch with vine leaves and grapes | 1854–57 | Gerard and Sleep | Private Collection

MAKER unknown | Tasmania

DATE c. 1862

Hand coloured photograph, probably ambrotype, with glass cover in a gold frame and original box, hand signed lower right inside of the lid ‘Horace Watson, 1862’. There is a note inside the box with ‘Horace Watson, Sandy Bay’ written on it. LENT BY Trevor Kennedy PHOTO John McRae BACK COVER Gold signet ring DATE c. 1855 MAKER unknown LENT BY Gold Museum | Ballarat